IT COMES as no great surprise that the Tory Jonathan Gittos is opposed to proportional representation (Oxford Mail letters, May 21).

As Christine Keeler might have said, ‘he would, wouldn’t he?’ I am in favour of PR. If we’d had PR in 1983, we wouldn’t have been stuck for 18 years under Tory rule – 11 of them under Margaret Thatcher – who, in the opinion of many, was the nastiest and most spiteful Prime Minister in our collective memory.

If we’d had PR would the UK have become party to the cynical conspiracy that ultimately led to the rape of Iraq?

All political parties are informal coalitions having some feature in common but with variations of interpretation.

Keeping these disparate groups under control is the job of party whips.

There is also patronage where influential members are offered minor ministerial posts in exchange for guaranteed loyalty.

What separates the two main Parties is that Labour supporters tend to favour state control and intervention while Tories advocate free enterprise and minimal regulation.

Apart from allowing the representation of minor parties, PR effectively prevents any one party from gaining an overall majority.

So under PR any workable administration has to comprise a coalition of two or more parties.

But coalitions already exist under the first past the post system.

What PR does is to transfer the nature of these coalitions from the party leaders to the electorate.

GL SAMSON, Preston Road, Abingdon