Sir – People seem to have forgotten that in 1997 Mr Blair appointed Lord Jenkins to report on electoral reform.

Ten months later his commission produced a very thorough study. Blair welcomed their proposals, and if he had stood up to Brown and other Labour heavyweights we could by now have had three elections under a more democratic system.

The Jenkins Commission recognised that there is no ideal system. First-past-the-post is the worst of all, usually handing a majority in Parliament to a party with minority support.

The single transferable vote breaks the link between constituents and MP, as does proportional representation (PR), and the latter may give the casting vote in Parliament to small extremist parties.

The alternative vote (AV) has several advantages but lacks transparency. As the best possible compromise, Jenkins recommended ‘AV Plus’ — AV with additional MPs elected by PR.

People seem to be afraid of coalition, but the lesson of the present one is that parties that break their promises risk annihilation — a strong incentive not to do so.

Anyway, only 28 per cent of the electorate turned out to vote against reform, so we should not accept that “the chance has gone for a generation”.

P J Stewart, Boars Hill