Preston indeed remained a two- member constituency until 1950

Preston, indeed, remained a two- member constituency until 1950.But what the alternative vote is not, or not necessarily, is proportional It may be more so than winner-takes-all It usually is. But certainly an assembly elected by this means will not possess an exact equivalence between the seats held by a party and the votes cast for it Why on earth should it? That is what I ask Others feel differently. I also think it is fairer, in that if Blair has 20,000 votes, Hague 19,000 and Ashdown 10,000, but 6,000 of Ashdown's voters have Hague as their second choice, it seems to me only just that Hague should be declared the winner. Others may disagree.Another merit is that it retains the link between member and constituency Here, however, we must be careful.

It is often asserted that one member, one constituency is not only virtuous in itself but a hallowed part of the British constitution going back to Ethelred the Unready. Who wins the battle of bumf," he added, to leave no misunderstanding about his meaning, "carries the committee."Like most journalists, I am reluctant to put pen to paper unless I am being paid So my thoughts remained unrecorded Similarly, I do not intend to write to Lord Jenkins. The smart money is on his recommending the alternative vote in parliamentary elections, or some ingenius combination of it with the present first-past-the-post system. The alternative vote has the support of both Mr Peter Hain of the Welsh Office and Mr Peter Mandelson of the Cabinet Office. Enoch Powell kept saying this, and such was his gaze of crazed intensity that everyone was too intimidated to contradict him It was all nonsense.

It was very nearly introduced by Ramsay MacDonald's Labour government of 1929-31, though no one was specially enthusiastic about it at the time.Under the alternative vote, the elector marks the ballot paper 1, 2, 3... and the bottom candidates drop out until one of the survivors obtains an absolute majority Its merit is comparative simplicity. He will, I am sure, read all the letters the commission receives or, at any rate, have them read to him I have not talked to him about this subject. But some years ago I was talking to a judge about a committee he was chairing and made a few casual observations about the subject of his inquiry."That's all very interesting," he said (or words to this effect), "but I'll have forgotten it by tomorrow morning Just put it in writing and we can consider it properly. For in my experience there are no more persistent advocates of any cause, even after the death of its most eagle-eyed proponent, Enid Lakeman, from whose attentions, expressed in letters to the editor, no one who so much touched on the subject was safe.Lord Jenkins is nothing if not diligent. No one who in his seventies could write a life of Gladstone could be described as lazy, as he sometimes has been. It has already asked for written submissions from interested parties. My advice to all enthusiasts for electoral reform is to put it in writing The advice should not be necessary.

But to begin with there is the Labour-Liberal Democrat commission on electoral reform under Lord Jenkins. It is on this last characteristic that I want to concentrate. There are now four separate developments, five if we count the methods of election to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly as distinct The others involve Europe and the House of Lords. THIS government is distinguished by several characteristics: a readiness to put things off until further "research" has been done (a method of proceeding which never appealed to Lady Thatcher but Mr Tony Blair is carrying to perhaps excessive lengths); a reliance on "focus groups" not merely to let Mr Blair know how popular he is but to tell him what he and his colleagues ought to do; and an enthusiasm for elections conducted under some form of proportional representation. Manor House, a long-established friendly society, offers a flat rate cover at pounds 13.04 a month for affinity groups of at least 20 people provided they are in work, but pensioners can remain members after they retire.

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