---

Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that point. She and I have not colluded on this, but I took the precaution of looking up the definition of ““alternative”” and its usage in the ““Shorter Oxford English Dictionary””, which says:"““Some traditionalists maintain””—" I think that she and I are both in that category—"““from an etymological standpoint, that you can only have a maximum of two alternatives (from the Latin alter 'other (of two)') and that uses where there are more than two alternatives are erroneous.””" However, the dictionary then says:"““Such uses are, however, normal in modern standard English.””" More is the pity, but that is the factual situation as described in the dictionary. However, the sense that I have described is how those of us who are traditionalists, as well as a lot of other people, understand the word ““alternative””. Indeed, although I am reluctant ever to criticise a word that he says, earlier on we heard the Prime Minister use the word ““less”” when he meant ““fewer””.