Five reasons why I’m voting Yes in the AV referendum
April 16, 2011 Iain Roberts 4 Comments

Over the next few days, people will start voting on the referendum to change the way we elect MPs.

Here are five reasons why I’m voting Yes to the Alternative Vote.

1. It’s as easy as 1-2-3
It’s not complicated. Just rank the candidates with “1″ for your favourite, “2″ for your next and so on. You don’t have to rank all the candidates – it’s up to you.

2. It will mean fewer safe seats
Hundreds of seats in this country are “safe” – the electoral arithmetic means that one party is pretty much certain of winning every time. The political parties need not bother in these seats. The winning party knows they’ll win without putting in any effort, the other parties know any campaigning will be wasted. Under AV there’ll be fewer safe seats – MPs will have to work for our votes just as ours does here.

3. Our current system is broken.
First Past the Post is fine where you have two parties getting nearly all the votes between them. That was true in the 1950s when Labour and Tories combined got about 98% of the vote. At our most recent election, they got less than two thirds of the votes. First Past the Post is a rubbish system when you’ve got more parties competing, as we have now. It allows MPs to be election on 30% of the votes or even less.

4. Look who’s on each side
In the No camp we have the Conservatives, the BNP and Old Labour. In the Yes camp there’s the Lib Dems, the Labour leader, Greens and UKIP. The BNP are voting NO because they know AV will make their lives more difficult.

5. The No campaign have resorted to nonsense
You know you’re winning the argument when the other side have to resort to making false claims to support their case. The No campaign started by claiming that a Yes vote would cost millions with new machines needed to count the votes. It wasn’t true – there are no need for voting or counting machines under the Alternative Vote and no plans to have any.

Now their big objection seems to be that using the Alternative Vote will somehow give people two votes. Sorry, but that’s just daft. If I go to the bar and order a pint of Boddingtons, but I’m told Boddy’s is off so I have a pint of Hydes instead, how many pints have I ended up with? Just the one!

national politics

4 Comments

1
Cheadle & Gatley starts voting this week
Saturday 16 April 2011 - 8:46 pm

[...] we’ve also persuaded you to vote Yes in the Alternative Vote referendum. council Leave a [...]

2
Bruce Thwaite
Sunday 17 April 2011 - 9:27 am

Sorry Iain but your logic is flawed and is typical Libdem sophistry – similar to last year when you stated that the council tax increase of 3.4% was less than inflation – what you didn’t tell the constituents is that it was over DOUBLE the national average. In fact the council tax increase is always over the average and has been for the last ten years or more.

Now your arguments

1 – Easy as 1-2-3 – don’t think so – what can be easier as voting for one candidate?

2. Fewer safe seats – not sure how you arrive at this one as this is not a logical conclusion but mere opinion. What happens if everybody only votes for one candidate?

3 Current system is broken – nonsense – there is nothing wrong with it. The only reason you want this is you believe is will give you more seats. Ranking a candidate is the same as endorsing his/her beliefs irrespective of where you place the person.

4 Each side – talk about scare tactics – you are the masters, cleverly listing the BNP with you opponents.

5. Resorted to nonsense – not sure about new machines but what is indisputable is that it will cost more and be much more complicated. And as for your analogy let me dispel that right away. If I vote for three candidates and my first choice was last that would be the first time my vote is used. As the last candidate drops out my vote would be used again so it would be used at least twice.

And how much is this referendum costing the tax payer – something else you conveniently skirt around – tell us now Iain – how many millions?

3
Robert Taggart
Sunday 17 April 2011 - 3:16 pm

Your own leader dismissed AV as a “miserable little compromise” – follow your leader – vote no ? !

4
D Rimmer
Sunday 17 April 2011 - 4:57 pm

This is the first referendum since the one on whether to leave the EU in 1975. The people are not given this sort of opportunity very often, so we should take it seriously.

However, on referendums I remain irritated that the LibDems promised a referendum in the 2005 election campaign on the EU Constitution and then (as Labour also did) backed away with a ridiculous argument that the change in name to the Lisbon Treaty meant they could break their election pledge, subsequently when in a position to force a referendum vote they voted with Labour and blocked it.

So the Libdems now want the AV vote system and we have a referendum – how surprising as it favours them.

I’snt that the point – the Libdems want to hold the balance of power so they can decide policy in private with either the Tories (as now) or Labour (maybe after the next election) and throw election pledges in the bin as it suits them (e.g.tuition fees).

Well I don’t like that very much as policy that is presented to voters should not be multilated in this way – at least with first past the post for all its failings we sort of get manifesto policy some of the time, unlike with coalitions where any policy can be scrapped by the “great and good” party leaders – therefore, as AV will increase coalitions I’m against it.

However, I am certainly very much in favour of referender in general. How utopian to have them on major issues for the people to instruct the politicians what to do.

For example Immigration, Capital Punishment and continued membership of the EU for a start.

Little chance of this I am afraid as politicians would not like the outcome would they?



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