THOMAS Gray suggests that I should be satisfied that there is a 75 per cent chance I got the local councillor I wanted (Letters, January 12). The actual result was 0%. At the level of national politics, each MP represents the views of 90,000 voters. There is the illusion that this person will represent my views in the debate on matters of serious concern to the nation, I did meet him once. He didn’t ask what I thought about anything.
Recent history suggests that asking each and every one of us in a referendum isn’t the solution either.
I spent my working life in Portland, Oregon, a city with a population of 550,000. It is governed by a mayor and four commissioners. The mayor assigns the various city bureaus, for fire, police and so on, to the individual commissioners. If you have a problem you know exactly where to go for help. If the people at the front desk won’t help you, you head for the commissioners’ office. If all else fails, you use your vote in the next election.
In Scotland we have various contrived voting systems. Politicians have decision making powers with no responsibility to the electorate at national or local levels. Helensburgh doesn’t have a governing body. There is an offshoot of Argyll and Bute Council called the Helensburgh and Lomond Area Committee. There are 10 part-time councillors for a population of 14,500.
Apply the Portland ratio of five elected representatives per 550,000 population and you come to the conclusion that Helensburgh should be able to function with 0.13 full-time equivalent, or one person working one day a week.
That sounds about right. Maybe something would get done.
John Black,
6 Woodhollow House,
Helensburgh.
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