Vote for stability

Published on Sunday 28 June 2009 21:14

JAMES Gilmour (Government & Public Affairs, 25 June) deserves praise, at least for his persistence and consistency, if not for his logic, in his reply to my previous article.

In his article advocating the Single transferable vote system, he fails to deal with the criticisms of STV, other than accountability.

STV produces unstable administrations, as we see now in many Scottish councils; it gives power to parties with few votes that then hold the balance of power between large parties; it gives a foothold to small, extreme, often racist parties, and it causes confusion.

However, his claim that STV produces greater accountability is laughable. We already see councillors passing the buck in multi-member wards in Edinburgh, and, in single-seat by-elections, it is the largest party which has been winning rather than the party vacating the seat it gained in the multi-seat election.

It is now that we can see the failings of STV in practice in Scottish councils that we can stop any further expansion of STV. Indeed, I would now hope we might consider returning to first past the post so that some order, stability and accountability can be restored to Scottish councils.

LORD GEORGE FOULKES MSP

Scottish Parliament