The Wimbledon Guardian is a first-rate community newspaper and has always striven to be fair and balanced in its political reporting. So for that reason I accept that there are occasions when our journal will have a social responsibility to publish anonymous letters.

     However, let me make it clear that Mitcham and Morden Labour Party does not support the views expressed in the recent anonymous letter (Residents come first, April 2), and I share the disgust expressed by the previous chairman of Wimbledon Conservatives, Richard Aitken-Davies, regarding the contents of that odious offering.

   Regardless of our political differences, it should be perfectly obvious that all of the principle candidates in our local election are honourable people who are seeking to benefit our Merton community. Siobhain McDonagh continues to be Britain's finest MP, having organised the campaigns to save St Helier hospital on three successful occasions, and will hopefully save it a fourth time now that it is once again under disgusting threat; but the tragedy of our 'first-past-the-post' electoral system is that there should be so many losers. So we need to change the system to something much fairer.

 Merton is growing fast. It is now a major industrial and creative hub, with the best-run council in Britain, with the longest running freeze on council tax. But the workload required to administer an area this vast is also increasing massively every year. That is why I personally believe that the time has come when we need to look again at our electoral system, and think very carefully about radically increasing the number of councillors who are elected to Merton Council, while also introducing an Australian-style proportional voting system, that will give our local smaller parties a substantially fairer representation.

That is why I am organising a monthly Cricket Green Labour Party Forum, to commence next month (after the election) to discuss these vitally important issues. In the following months we will also expand the forum to cover all local and national political issues of crucial importance to us all. All local residents and political party members are welcome. I can promise you some amazing guest speakers, and plenty of home-made cakes. Everyone is welcome and if you are able to attend please come. Most of all we want you to contribute your ideas. We need a democracy that represents ALL OF US.

Michael Barltrop

Mitcham and Morden Labour Party