The blind voter

The general election result has hugely strengthened the case for electoral reform. Labour won an overall majority of 67 and a majority over the Tories of more than twice that, yet its share of the vote was just 3 per cent more than the Tory share. If the Tories had achieved a further swing of just 2 per cent, they would have won more votes than Labour, but Labour would still have had an overall majority.

Labour has a big majority while having won the votes of 21.6 per cent of the electorate. In less than a decade the proportion…