From Mr R. G. Medlow, MRPharmS
SIR,-The letter from Mr Reynolds (PJ, June 17, p912) contains many factual errors that need to be corrected immediately.
Contrary to what Mr Reynolds says, the single transferable vote system was devised in the 1850s by Thomas Hare and John Stuart Mill, whereas the Electoral Reform Society was not founded until 1884, around the time of the extended franchise. The founding committee members, of what was then called
the Proportional Representation Society, included six Liberal members of Parliament, five Conservative MPs and a home rule MP.
It was the Labour party that first adopted STV at its annual conference in 1918, although it did not appear in its manifesto. The Liberal party did not adopt STV until 1922. It is difficult to square the allegation that ERS
is a front for the Liberal party when the ERS chairman is a former Conservative MP, the vice-chairman a former Labour MP and the eminent Conservative historian, Lord Blake, a recent president.
Our Treasurer has no cause for concern. If he were to inquire about the relative costs of multiple X voting and STV he would discover there is no difference at all.
STV enhances the opportunity for significant minority groups, however defined, to obtain representation in an organisation such as the Royal Pharmaceutical Society. That is why the case was won for its introduction in the early 1970s.
The change from multiple X voting to STV was not undertaken lightly. A return to multiple X voting by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society would not only be a retrograde step but would be viewed by other health care professions with disdain.
Incidentally, the writer has been a member of the Labour party for 35 years and a member of the ERS for 30 years.
Ron Medlow Guildford