Your editorial (17 February) highlights the poverty of representation under a first-past-the-post electoral system. In rectifying the skewing of the electors’ wishes, it is, however, vital to make sure that the replacement for the existing narrow choice does not replace one abuse with another. Political polling since the parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009 has demonstrated the electorate’s disdain for existing parties and the inadequacies of our politics. It is not, then, a moment to put even more power into the hands of the parties’ central machines. But all party-list electoral systems, to a greater or lesser extent, do precisely that. When a seat in the House of Commons depends on the candidate’s place on the list, elections are determined by the party’s selection and not the voters’ election. Proportional representation of parties may well be secured, but at the high price of a loss of accountability and the diminution of the role of the constituency MP. The optimum electoral system is the one that gives the voter the opportunity to rank the candidates in order of preference and therefore ensures the wider proportionality of gender, age, ethnicity and section of party if the voter so wishes. Such a system is already in place in Northern Ireland as well as for Scottish local elections. Now Welsh local authorities are being offered the choice. It is high time English voters had the same opportunity. Michael Meadowcroft Leeds • Cabinet government in this country is on life support. Proportional representation rarely allows a party to win an election “outright”, hence it is a way to reinject life into what ought to be robust and difficult conversations in cabinet. Would Tony Blair have gone to war in Iraq on the basis of sketchy intelligence if there were politicians of different colours in his cabinet? Would a more diverse cabinet have allowed David Cameron to go to the country on the matter of EU membership without first doing the groundwork on what that meant? One domain your editorial did not cover was local government. First past the post elections at that level often lead to councils in cities with effectively no opposition to Labour domination, and in the shires with effectively no opposition to Tory domination. With overwhelming majorities, imprudent, compassionless, unsustainable or reckless decision-making can ensue. Much of the policy to address the housing crisis, adult social care, climate change and air quality, and to reinvigorate our high streets, will be made at a local level. That is why local government elections should be first in the queue for PR, which would allow more diverse, green, feminist and other voices to push for better decision-making by our councils. Stuart Brady Labour parliamentary candidate for Loughborough in 2019 • The UK is fundamentally undemocratic, as many of us – I’m 72 – have been saying so for a long time. The late Lord Hailsham pointed it out in his Dimbleby lecture in 1976. Later there was Charter88. Proportional representation for Westminster elections would be a start, but if the UK is to become a modern democracy, it needs radical reform. Many voices are calling for a progressive alliance at the next general election to defeat the Conservatives. We are working on a manifesto for the first term of an alliance government that could transform our “elective dictatorship” into a real democracy. All fellow travellers are welcome to join us and/or work with us. Better to light a single candle than curse the darkness. Lyn Dade @RebootGB