Madam, - While I share Paddy Stack's sentiments about the lack of genuine political philosophy in Irish politics (April 9th), I do not agree that coercing the largest two parties to coalesce is a good idea, for three reasons.
Firstly, it is inherently undemocratic as it removes freedom of choice.
Secondly, it means there would be very large government majorities in the coalition, which would prove unstable. The best coalition government is the one formed with the minimal number of seats to form a safe majority. The 1992 Fianna Fáil/Labour government almost fits Mr Stack's prescription and that didn't last very long.
Finally, there would be no point in the Greens, Labour, the Progressive Democrats and Sinn Féin existing as there would be little point in anyone voting for them. I much prefer the status quo with some political philosophy to an electoral system with none. - Yours, etc,
IAN M. O'MARA, Booterstown, Co Dublin.
Madam, - A coalition of the two largest parties has been reality in Austria ever since the republic was reinstated after the second World War.
It has proved prone to appalling levels of internal deadlock, and has cemented systems of cronyism and corruption so deeply in all the institutions of state that even when a different government happened to be in office, the grand coalition never really went away.
A British-style, first-past-the-post system is often mooted as a way of breaking out of this unhappy situation - generally in blissful ignorance that the current British government got a comfortable parliamentary majority with the votes of fewer than 25 per cent of the electorate.
I conclude that grumbling about voting systems is usually a displacement activity. It's the worst possible substitute for getting off the sofa and campaigning for political change - if that's what we think is needed. - Yours, etc,
BEN HEMMENS, Graz, Austria.