Denis MacShane ("Open lists will give us closed minds", 27 November) offers a convincing defence of closed lists, and one suspects that the "modern political parties" he advocates are modelled on the German ones. However, we should remember that the undemocratic way the lists and, in particular, their order were decided by the Labour Party for the European elections would be illegal in Germany, where democratic selection procedures are a constitutional requirement.

Ed Turner
Munich, Germany

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