The voting reform referendum will engage few people which is why the 40% threshold could not be contemplated by the supporters of the YestoAV campaign. The Alternative Vote is not proportional and is likely to give even more unfair outcomes to elections than First Fast The Post. I believe that the supporters of AV fall into three camps: those that see AV as a halfway house to a voting system of full proportional representation such as the single Transferable Vote, those that will support any measure that would diminish the Conservative Party's chances of ever forming another government alone and those that see the benefits of amending the British constitution as a precedent for future changes.
Analysis as reported by UK Polling Report suggests that a system of AV would have given Tony Blair's Labour party a larger majority in 2005, an election that Labour won with a majority of 60 seats despite receiving just a third of the votes cast. A system of AV at last year's general election would have have given Labour more seats and the Conservatives fewer and this despite Labour receiving a smaller share of the popular (under AV the first preference) vote than at any time since the 1920s.
Remember the above when people clan that AV means no more wasted votes or that AV means fairer votes. AV means neither of those things but it does make it more likely that there will be permanent left of centre governments in the UK. If that is what the supporters of the YestoAV campaign want then at least let them be honest about it.
Analysis as reported by UK Polling Report suggests that a system of AV would have given Tony Blair's Labour party a larger majority in 2005, an election that Labour won with a majority of 60 seats despite receiving just a third of the votes cast. A system of AV at last year's general election would have have given Labour more seats and the Conservatives fewer and this despite Labour receiving a smaller share of the popular (under AV the first preference) vote than at any time since the 1920s.
Remember the above when people clan that AV means no more wasted votes or that AV means fairer votes. AV means neither of those things but it does make it more likely that there will be permanent left of centre governments in the UK. If that is what the supporters of the YestoAV campaign want then at least let them be honest about it.
It is a major constitutional change and should require at least 50% (if not more) of the electorate to vote in favour , so people who don't vote are counted as votes against. The debate about 40% turnout is ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteBut, the UK ceased to be a democracy in any meaningful sense years ago, so maybe it doesn't really matter any more.