The election result, with Labour dominating parliament despite only having won just over a third of the vote, has rightly brought electoral reform to the forefront of the national debate (Labour divided over calls to scrap first past the post after landslide win, 17 July). But the debate is in danger of being dominated by a false dichotomy: between first past the post and proportional representation. This is unhelpful, not least because PR is not going to happen – not with a Labour government that FPTP has blessed with such a luxurious majority.
The choice is not between FPTP and PR. As I learned as a member of the Jenkins committee on electoral reform 25 years ago, there are as many electoral systems as there are apples on a tree.
