I just got a reply to my Letter that I sent to Gavin Strang MP, where I asked him to support the Vote For A Change Campaign. After saying that he supported PR for Scottish Parliament as he was woried that people would have perceived that it would be dominated by the Central belt and West of Scotland because of Labours strength, bizzarely he goes on to say that a PR system for Westminster would not be appropriate. So PR is good enough for provincial parliaments, but not Westminster.

Firstly, he says that it's important to preserve a constituency link between the MP and the people that they're supposed to represent. He reckons it's stronger under First Past The Post (FPTP), than other systems. I don't agree. Afterall, I don't seem to be in agreement with Mr Strang on this issue, and I didn't vote for him in the first place. Perhaps if there were two or three people elected to represent my constituency, one of whom I'd voted for, maybe I'd find someone amongst them to take up my cause more seriously in parliament?

Secondly, he claims that FPTP makes it easy for people to vote a government out, as opposed to a coalition administration that might be likley under some for of PR. Being a Labour MP, getting voted out may be at the forefront of Mr Strangs mind at the moment, however, I really don't understand this point. Labour is currently in power, but on what proportion of the votes cast? In 2005, Labour only received 35% of the vote, on a low turnout. Why then should they have such a huge majority in Westminster? This indicates to me that unpopular governments are as hard to get rid of under the current system as any other.

Thirdly, Mr Strang thinks that PR systems give a disproportionate amount of long-term influence to 'a third party'.  It's true that PR systems have the potential to give power to a minority interest in parliament, but then FPTP systems exclude small parties entirely. I think most people would agree that the Additional Member System that has elected Greens, Socialists and other independents to the Scottish Parliament has helped to improve the breadth of debate in Holyrood. Similar things could be said of the Welsh assembly and the London Assembly.

To me it sounds as though Mr Strang would prefer to keep the cosy two party system running in Westminster for as long as possible. Which is pretty surprising really, as you would have thought they'd be trying to work out a coalition deal with the LibDems in time for the next general election. Now that it looks like Brown has seen off the plotters, it's the only way I can imagine that Labour might stay in power in Westminster in the next parliament.