Let's get AV

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Comment by Colin Green on July 7, 2010 at 20:59

A number of people at the last election said they'd like to vote for our candidate here but would vote Labour to keep out the Conservative candidate. AV would help the Libdems massively here because of this. We could have told them to vote Lib Dem first, and thank them, then suggested they put Labour in second place to keep out the Conservatives should we not win overall.

This is the key benefit of AV. For the voter they get to keep their cake and eat it, so to speak. Some people say It's like having 2 votes. For the Lib Dems, we would get more first preference votes with the voter safe in the knowledge that they can put a safe bet in second place. It may not be the holy grail of STV but AV is on offer and I think it offers much over FPTP.

Comment by Deniece Fisher on July 7, 2010 at 20:16

That's interesting. The true fact of the matter is that no-one can possibly say what the outcome of an AV election would be, as we've never had the chance to put more than one cross in a box. Okay, they're polling now, but the GE taught us how helpful the polls are, didn't it?!

Looking back into history & trying to gauge how those elections would have turned out is a bit of non-sense. Still, if it helps to garner more YES votes, then I'm happy with them playing that game!!

I followed some of the links through, and came to this: Labour should support a yes vote on AV

Interesting in itself, but one comment confused me totally: Will Straw "If we move to a system of AV it will essentially reflect the public..."

What??? As far as this Lib Dem is concerned "The Coalition" ends when parliament is dissolved in May 2015, then (if there's another hung parliament) we negotiate a new deal!

Comment by Julian Douglas St Michael Porter on July 7, 2010 at 12:04

AV is quite a nice system. Unlike some others you can describe it in less than 100 words (Wikipedia manages it in 78). Personally I'd have preferred AV+, but then, that's because it's more like the German system which, you might have gathered, I rather like.

But here's the good thing. AV is simple. It is obviously fair. So it should be very easy to rebut lies about it, because everybody should be able to understand it.

Comment by Julian Douglas St Michael Porter on July 5, 2010 at 20:34

I still fail to grasp why anyone would vote Tory.

Well, in the case of my mother, I think it's tribal. I still haven't dared tell her how I vote.

The obvious way to rebut the 'AV stole my kitten' style of argument is to point out that though there are some brilliant examples out there of how not to do PR (Israel, for example), that stunning example of a failed state (isn't satire wonderful?) Germany has been doing it for years.

Comment by Sam Amison on July 5, 2010 at 20:11

I still fail to grasp why anyone would vote Tory. I mean, what the Hell is going on with education?! Parent-owned schools? I know that my mother does not have a few hundred thousand pounds to invest in a school. These new schools, in turn, will take potential state school students away which means less money for state education. Yay! The aristocrats own the schools again! God bless the Tories and their radical plans to ride Britain back through time on the backs of single mothers, low earners and state education! Maybe we'll get rid of the NHS next...

Comment by Deniece Fisher on July 5, 2010 at 15:50

Phew. I was worried for a little while. Life will return to normal then.

Have you signed on here yet: http://www.fairervotes.org.uk/

Comment by Deniece Fisher on July 5, 2010 at 14:35

Crickey - is that really the Daily Mail?! But they're not predicting the end of the world as we know it?

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