PR risks silencing Scotland completely

A nice try, but it suffers the major flaw of completely ignoring the regional nature of the present system.

MPs represent constituencies, not parties. They represent all their constituents and not just those who vote for them. Anyone listening to debates in Westminster will frequently hear local matters raised.

SNP seats are all in North-east Scotland, an area that bore the brunt of the sacrifice of the North Sea fisheries to the EU, so, understandably, it has a beef about the UK.

However, nowhere else in Scotland followed this lead and chose a Nationalist as its MP. The cities of Scotland know their jobs are tied to the UK and it's the UK parties they voted for.

The Nationalists might not like it, but at last the authentic voice of the Scottish people appeared.

PR window dressing certainly improves the arithmetic, but the electorate disappears. Big battalions rule while minorities are stifled.

Scots should be very, very wary about PR, because it's the minority Scottish voice that will be by far the largest casualty of PR at Westminster. This would certainly suit the Nats, but would it suit the Scots?

ROBERT VEITCH

Paisley Drive

Edinburgh

The need for electoral reform is desperate. We face the possibility of a governing party unceremoniously thrown out in both seats and votes yet remaining in office supported by another with even less support. That's like SPL runners-up Celtic teaming up with bottom club Falkirk and claiming joint championship over first-placed Rangers.

However, it would be a reform too far to accept the nonsense of special privilege for women, as proposed by Engenderin (Platform, 11 May). Women already have equal entitlement with men in presenting themselves for election and it is for them to make the most of that.

The idea of seats being set aside for women (or men) is glaringly undemocratic and infringes voters' rights. As for enacting such a suspect system, if it were left to individual parties to select constituencies for all-female candidates, that might produce no women MPs at all.

That leaves the prospect of 50 per cent of seats officially allocated to male or female candidates – a nightmare scenario. By whom and on what basis would these be selected? What about Independents, who by definition have no party?

This crazy arrangement would disenfranchise any party and its supporters if no member of the officially approved sex applied for candidacy.

ROBERT DOW

Ormiston Road

Tranent