THE unity of the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties over the future

government of Scotland will be tested today by suggestions that the

number of Scottish MPs at Westminster should be cut, and that voting for

a future Scottish Parliament may have to be made compulsory.

In addition, the two parties are being asked to accept that MPs for a

Scottish Parliament should be elected by some form of the Additional

Member System, which will mean MPs in Parliament who have not won the

approval of the electorate.

The controversial proposals are contained in the working party reports

on a future Scottish Parliament which are to be presented to the

executive of the the Scottish Constitutional Convention at its meeting

in Glasgow today.

Representatives of both Labour and the Liberal Democrats, as well as

other Convention supporters such as trades unions and churches, took

part in the working parties which investigated what electoral system a

future Scottish Parliament should have and how it would operate on a

day-to-day basis.

They admit that they have not been able to agree on Scotland's future

representation at Westminster, although it is known that some members

favour cutting the number of Scottish MPs from 72 to 65, to bring it

more into line with the rest of the UK.

This is likely to be resisted by Labour as it is the party which has

the most to lose from such a suggestion.

However, the Conservative Party which has shunned the Convention,

claiming there is no need for a parliament or assembly in Scotland, will

quickly seize upon any suggestion of dissent among the Convention

members.

A system of compulsory voting, which is used in a number of countries,

also is likely to be unpopular with many people, yet it is one of the

suggestions that the working parties will put to the executive.

The difficult problem of which electoral system to use has also been

addressed, with the working party on the electoral system agreeing that

there should be some form of Additional Member System in order to give

the various parties a form of proportional representation.

The basic idea is that parties have their number of MPs topped up from

party lists to make the number in Parliament broadly in line with their

percentage of the total vote.

The problem is that there would then be MPs who are not answerable to

a constituency and may be seen in some way as ''second-class'' MPs.

The working party accepts that there are variations on AMS which will

have to be investigated.

There already is the sound of backpedalling in the proposals as the

working party says that there may have to be a review of the system

after it is in place, but again any signs of uncertainty will be

exploited by opponents, not only in the Conservative Party, but also in

the Labour Party where there is still a vocal minority pushing for the

first-past-the-post system to be retained.

Both Mr Malcolm Bruce of the Scottish Liberal Democrats and Mr Donald

Dewar of the Labour Party are expected to take part in today's executive

meeting and both are keen to emphasise the common ground between them.

Whether the working party reports cut away the common ground will

become clearer after some tough talking at the meeting.