Sir, - If they are advocating single-member constituencies (January 13th) we must assume the Progressive Democrats are neither Progressive nor Democratic, not least because ultimate authority in a democracy rests with the people, and the latter rejected single-member constituencies, first in 1959 with 51.8 per cent, and again in 1968 with 61 per cent.
Of the Eastern European countries which have recently "gone democratic", some like Poland opted for PR List, a few like Hungary chose a form of PR based on the two-tier German model which uses single constituency voting and PR List, while others like Russia have used single constituencies based the French two-round model. But none have chosen the Australian form of the single transferable vote in single constituencies let alone the ancient English "first-past-the-post".
There is one other country which has changed recently, having mistakenly thought that to replace their PR List system by a more majoritarian model would somehow help them get a more stable form of government and thus Italy got a crack-pot media tycoon and a bunch of neofascists - Yours etc
The de Borda Institute, Rhubarb Cottage, 36 Ballysillan Road, Belfast BT14 7QQ.