THE Alternative Vote is the best way forward says Bernard Jarman.

It has to be said that the logic behind his reasoning is deeply flawed.

The only way a candidate can get over 50 per cent is to effectively have someone else's vote as an afterthought.

It is, as Nick Clegg described it, a miserable little compromise.

For example, if a candidate gets 35 per cent of the vote in the first ballot then they must get a further 16 per cent of votes as second preference votes from people who never wanted to vote for them in the first instance: that is not democratic.

His argument against PR is equally lacking in logic: by far the best system is the German system AMS.

In this version of PR, 50 per cent of MPs would be elected on a FPTP method then 50 per cent elected on the percentage of votes each party has received. It does require larger constituencies, why is that a problem?

The five per cent threshold is a fair one, meaning that extreme fringe parties don't get a seat.

The proof of any pudding is in the eating, and the German system consistently delivers results that are very accurate in delivering the number of seats your percentage of the vote demands. Tactical voting is pretty much unheard of, and no party can form a majority government with as low a percentage of the electorate as the recent Tory majority, won on just 24-25 per cent of those eligible to vote – that really is profoundly undemocratic.

How does PR muddy the waters? Under PR, if you only get 33 per cent of the votes cast, you will only get 33 per cent of the seats in Parliament.

It couldn't be clearer, or fairer, how does that muddy the waters?.

With PR, people could really vote for their beliefs free from the temptation to vote tactically, no one knows what the result would be, it's never been done before in a General Election here in the UK.

Had the recent General Election been fought on AV, the result would have been no different than on FPTP.

Still very undemocratic, still in no way representing the wishes of the electorate as a whole.

Whilst I agree with Bernard that tactical voting is undemocratic, and a wasted vote, AV is no better: that is why it was resoundingly rejected in the referendum.

It does not need to be revisited any time soon.

Kevin Ellis

Stroud