I HAVE a confession to make. I voted in the recent Parliamentary elections.

This was no conversion. I still think engaging in undemocratic activities a bit shaming, but in this case it looked like a hung Parliament was in the offing. At last here was something I could vote for with a good conscience.

My fear is that our politicos will come up with some system favourable to themselves, but of less benefit to the electorate.

I favour the straightforward alternative vote. I like our single member system, but I want whoever represents me to represent the majority of my fellow constituents.

I am less concerned with the possibility that Parliament might sometimes represent only a minority of the electorate, undesirable though this is.

The simplest solution is usually the best. No system is likely to be entirely satisfactory.

Statistics show that the majority of people are dissatisfied with the present system, but there are no statistics to suggest that people are much concerned with proportionality.

As a democrat, I will accept any system chosen by the majority of the electorate. But I will never accept a system imposed on us by a discredited Parliament.

William Dixon Smith, Welland Rise, Acomb, York