IN THE recent general election the Conservatives got 11.5 million votes and 331 seats, Labour got 9.5 million votes and 232 seats, the SNP got 1.5 million votes and 56 seats, the Liberal Democrats got 2.5 million votes and 8 seats, Plaid Cymru got 180,000 votes and three seats, the Social Democrats got 100,000 votes and three seats, the Greens got 1 million votes and one seat and UKIP got 4 million votes and one seat.

Two points arise from this result.

The first is that first past the post is a very undemocratic system. I am not a fan of UKIP, but they got more than a third of the Conservative vote and got only 0.3% approximately of the Conservatives seats. The same applies to the Greens and the Liberal Democrats. In a fairer system the result would have been: Conservatives 240 seats Labour 200 seats SNP 25 seats Liberal Democrats 50 seats Ukip 81 seats Greens 25 seats Plaid Cymru 4/5 seats Social Democrats 2/3 seats.. (These are all approximate numbers, of course.) We would then be celebrating a coalition administration, whether of the left or right, but an administration that would have to discuss policies with their partners.

The second point is that even in the election on the first past the post system, the number of votes cast for those on the right would be about 15 million (if UKIP is included with the Conservatives) and about 14 million for left-leaning parties.

If, however, as Mr Cameron indicated, the Conservatives would not work with Ukip, the Conservatives would be 2.5 million votes fewer than a combined left-leaning group.

So, if the Greens, Liberal Democrats, the SNP, Plaid Cymru and Labour had agreed an unofficial alliance, they might have got much many more seats and could now be the ruling coalition.

My feeling is therefore, that parties of the centre left should talk to each other as a matter of urgency and they should also campaign for a changed electoral system, a fairer system, a system which would more accurately reflect the number of votes cast.

Time is short. Next year, for example, all district councillors will be up for election.

If the centre left in Stroud got together and discussed a more co-operative relationship between the parties, the Conservatives could be kept out of control of the council.

Brian Oosthuysen

Stroud