Dear Mr Blair,

I believe that the result of this month's election, in which your government was elected with a 67-seat majority on 36% of the popular vote and with the support of 22% of the electorate, is a subversion of our democracy.

I call on you, in your final term as Prime Minister, to institute urgent reform of our voting system so that the British people are encouraged to believe that their votes count and that the result of a general election is more representative of their wishes.

sign up at: - http://www.independent.co.uk/cfd/democracy.jsp

I agree.

But do you think voting should be made compulsory?

No, i don't. As a broadly 'liberal' minded person i would shy away from forcing people to vote.

However i do think that we should make sure that every vote counts - we desperatly need to change the sysem to reflect this.

I for one support electoral reform. However, there are a number of points which people need to think about.

Why are the Tories completely silent on the subject? It's been pointed out that they got 60,000 more votes than Labour in England, but some 90 fewer seats. Pointed out, that is, by virtually everybody except the Tories themselves. Why? Because the Tories are completely committed to the current system, believing in the "one more heave" theory, that if Labour can win a majority on 36% of the vote, so can they next time round. Turkeys aren't going to vote for Christmas, so unless Howard or the new leader start dogging Labour's heels on this, and demanding electoral reform, nothing is going to happen. And if Labour get in again in 2009 with 36% of the vote, the Tories have nobody to blame but themselves.

Similarly, the BNP and UKIP seem to be completely uninterested in this subject, even though PR would greatly help them. Apart from the Lib Dems, who have always supported PR, all the pressure for reform is, paradoxically, coming from the Left.

Under PR nobody would have an overall majority. The balance of power would be held by the Lib Dems, who could then decide whether to put Labour or the Tories into power on the basis of deals brokered in smoke-filled rooms. Would everybody be happy about that?

We need to think about possible alternatives to PR, including Alternative Vote. This would retain single-member constituencies, and give a majority to one party on a minority of the vote. But it would allow people to vote how they like without fear of 'letting the other side in'.