Vote of no confidence
Sir: Rod Liddle is too harsh on those calling for another general election (‘I hope you didn’t sign that petition’, 30 November). You do not have to be a Trumpian denialist to believe the result in July raised serious concerns. Labour received just 33.7 per cent of the votes cast, yet won 411 of the 650 seats in the Commons. Labour’s total votes amounted to 23,622 per MP elected. The figure for Reform UK was 823,522. First past the post in individual constituencies works well with two major parties. But when support is significantly more divided, it is not fit for purpose. The petition was surely born out of signatories’ frustration that their votes were not fairly reflected in the new membership of the legislature.
Francis Bown
London E3
Unfinished business
Sir: In your leading article ‘Labour’s little helper’ (30 November), you lambast the CBI, accusing us of being ‘corporate bureaucrats’ and ‘failing to stand up for the real wealth creators in society’. If by this you mean smaller businesses, the majority of our direct and indirect members are small- or medium-sized companies. It is also true that most of the CBI’s income comes from companies that employ more than 50 people – that’s the companies which together account for 66 per cent of business turnover, 53 per cent of private sector employment and the majority of business investment. So I hope that you would agree that these count as wealth creators.
Your central charge seems to be that we betray business if we engage constructively with government, rather than standing on the sidelines chucking rocks.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in