I want Brexit to tear the main parties apart – at least we’d have a shot at a fairer voting system

Perhaps I’m just a starry-eyed optimist, but I’m starting to hope that the silver lining of the potential Brexit calamity is that both of the largest parties could tear themselves apart.

That could leave us with a parliament of several parties of former Labour and Conservative members, and a few more, Lib Dems, Greens and others.

In the UK we are unaccustomed to government by overt coalition, though it has long been apparent that covert coalition is the norm as ruling parties’ internal squabbles are observed.

Other countries manage with coalition governments and we would, hopefully, emulate their practice of having some form of proportional representation.

Until now, our voting system has caused many of us to feel that our votes, and perhaps we ourselves, count for very little.

The Conservative and Labour parties have, in effect, colluded for the last hundred years to take turns at being in government.

Then, in order to maintain party unity, MPs obey their whips ahead of their consciences. The executive can therefore wield power greater than that allotted to them by the people.

Is it any wonder that voter turnout has been so low? And should we be surprised when prime ministers seem to regard it as their right to deny parliament its sovereignty?

John Bercow came in for a lot of unwarranted criticism when he stood up for parliament.

Dominic Grieve is doing his best to claim just one day a week when MPs can take control of parliamentary business.

Let’s hope that, for the sake of democracy, he succeeds.

Susan Alexander
South Gloucestershire

More political transparency?

One thing that has been bothering the hell out of me is Tom Peck’s insight into the way the political message is massaged at source.

The media get wind of what is going to be said in advance and overnight they busily interpret it to suit their own political bias.

So, on the one hand you could say: “If this is democracy, you can stick it up your arse!”

But, on the other hand you might say: “This is great, because it means you can damn and heckle these playboy politicians, before they’ve even said anything!”

If I’d known in advance that Boris Johnson was going to spool out the biggest pile of crap any politician has ever spooled out in the history of everything this week, I would have been on his doorstep at dawn with a whole bunch of rotten tomatoes.

Chris Bonfield
Address supplied

A new approach for police

Many years ago I was on a theatrical tour that included Singapore.

When the company were settled in the hotel, we received a visit from a police inspector, who assured us that if we wished to go for a stroll and enjoy a breath of fresh air after the show, it would be perfectly safe to walk the streets.

The inspector went on to say that the police of Singapore had a different approach to criminals, compared with the United Kingdom.

He told us that if a drug dealer was caught, he would be locked up and the key would be lost.

Also, the family of a criminal involved in any manner with drugs would lose the social benefits that other criminals could expect.

The families of drug-related criminals had to rely on relatives and friends for any support.

Although this may seem extreme in our eyes, this approach by the police does seem to work.

Colin Bower
Nottingham

What about Coolio?

One serious omission from your “The Top 10: Pop songs based on classical music” , and one of the biggest hits that used Pachelbel’s Canon in D major, was “I’ll see you when you get there” by Coolio.

Robbie Mitchell
Address supplied

Democracy cannot bow down to thuggery

Why is a second referendum, in principle, such a problem? The government has just had, in effect, a second vote on Theresa May’s leadership. Who objected to that?

Wording the new referendum questions may prove problematic, but it’s transparently obvious that the Brexiteer objection to a people’s vote is not about democracy, but their fears of being defeated.

They should be more confident. Now they have a crystal clear vision of what exiting the EU means, why not see if the electorate agree? What have they got to lose? What could be more democratic than a vote?

Threats of civil unrest if Brexit is democratically reversed further undermine their objections.

Democracy cannot bow down to thuggery.

After the first referendum, which was undermined by questionable Leave tactics, Remainers were equally angered.

This was further compounded by the subsequent surge in racist violence, but civil unrest was not the outcome.

This has to be resolved through democracy. The electorate has to have a Final Say.

Simon Watson
Address supplied

Prince Philip and safe driving

The debate about safe driving and age limits is the wrong debate.

The debate should be about scrapping driver drink and drug testing in favour of driver reaction time testing (by means of a simple hand-held or plug-in device).

The current tests cannot ever keep up with new drug production and a simple reaction time test, (repeated three times at the road side), would catch drivers of any age who should not be driving.

Guy Shirra
Sai Kung