Any answers

"Any Questions", with Polly Toynbee, spent quite a lot of time on electoral reform this evening (Friday) so, if you missed it, you may be interested to hear the repeat on Radio 4 at 13.10 tomorrow (Saturday) followed by "Any Answers" at 14.00 when you can support reform yourselves.

Speaker's Conference wants your views

The Speaker's Conference on Parliamentary Representation wants your views. Please visit http://forums.parliament.uk/speakers-conference/index.php?index,1 to send your views. Alternatively, there is a link from www.stvAction.org.uk. The conference is looking into the reasons why women, disabled people and people from ethnic minorities are under-represented in the House of Commons, and to recommend ways in which the situation can be improved.

When you visit the site, you will find three questions. The second, "What is the best way to increase ...?" is the one most relevant to electoral reform. If, as I expect you do, you think that electoral reform, especially STV, would increase the representation of under-represented groups, this is your chance to say so.

STV Action sent evidence on 5 February to the Speaker's Conference. We wrote that:

Ethnic and social groups were not spread out evenly across the country and First Past the Post gave certain areas of the country (marginal constituencies) a disproportionate amount of power leaving others with minimal influence;

The election of one representative could never be diverse, whereas a group of representatives could represent the political and cultural diversity of a constituency;

The best solution ... would be to use the Single Transferable Vote (STV) in multi-member constituencies, the system used for local elections in Scotland and all elections in Northern Ireland except to Westminster.

I regret that House of Commons rules prevent us from publishing the evidence without permission, but please contact me if you have any queries.

Your views

Do please use the link near the top of this newsletter to tell me your views on its contents or on any other aspect of STV. I would especially welcome your ideas for campaigning, but please comment on other matters if you wish.