LETTER: A voting system to suit century

Women (over 30) were first given the vote in the UK 100 years ago, to be precise on 6 February 1918, so we should be celebrating or should we?

Unfortunately, the vote is virtually worthless for most women and men (about 65 per cent to 70 per cent) because they live in safe constituencies.

However you vote, your MP will be Labour if you live in Liverpool, Walton or Conservative if you live in Christchurch, and most constituencies are like that.

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You cannot influence an election result unless you live in one of the minority of constituencies that are marginal.

Also, with the present voting system, a party can, and usually does, have a majority of MPs with only a minority of votes so it can force through policies that most voters voted against. That is undemocratic.

The party leaders, workers and funds are concentrated mainly on marginal constituencies.

Only the opinions of voters in marginal constituencies matter.

The rest of us – both women and men – don’t count.

It is time to give women and men votes that count.

It is time to change the voting system to one suited to the 21st century.

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