THE public will wonder why the Government are spending time fiddling around with the electoral system, when they should be dealing with our schools, our hospitals and our economy -- an economy which seems to have new problems every day.

This whole exercise has had nothing to do with the national interest and everything to do with concocting a system that suits the personal and party interests of the Prime Minister's cronies. The British system has provided us with strong and effective government. An alternative voting plus system will give us more coalitions and weak, unstable governments. The present system also allows voters to show their dissatisfaction by periodically sending the removal van to Number 10.

One of the strongest features of our current system is the clear link between voters and their MPs. This new system, untried in the world, for which Britain is to be the laboratory experiment, would create a whole new class of MPs, elected by no one and responsible to party bosses, not the voters.

I believe that power in our electoral system should rest with those who visit the polling booths on election day -- and not those who reside in political ivory towers.

Paul Brierley,

Aire Drive,

Bromley Cross, Bolton.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.