Sir, - For over 40 years the Unionist Party used the first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system as a means of limiting nationalist representation at Stormont. It is deeply ironic that FPTP has recently delivered a body blow to the UUP in the form of Rev McCrea's victory in South Antrim. Mr McCrea gained just under 38 per cent of the vote: there was a 62 per cent anti-DUP vote. Had PR-STV been used, David Burnside would have won.
Last week's vote is a stark reminder of the decline and fall of Terence O'Neill. In 1970, a Paisleyite candidate won the Stormont Bannside by-election with about 42 per cent of the vote. O'Neill's candidate gained about 40 per cent and the NILP the remainder. Again, FPTP would have ensured that a pro-reform Unionist would have won on transfers from the NILP. Arguably, the Bannside election and subsequent FPTP-type elections have emasculated moderate unionism between 1969 and today. Should the DUP swing in South Antrim be replicated in Upper Bann, Strangford and Fermanagh/South Tyrone, there will be no pro-Agreement or even lukewarm MPs returned.
If the UUP wishes to survive as an electoral entity in Westminster it needs to campaign for the introduction of PR-STV in NI/UK elections. - Yours, etc.,
Philip McGuinness, Kilkerley, Dundalk, Co Louth.