Keeping our voting system
Posted by Brandon Lewis, MP for Great Yarmouth, at 17:41, Mon 4 April 2011:
NO to AV – the referendum on our voting system
On 5 May next year the UK will have its first nationwide referendum for 36 years. We are being asked whether we want to get rid of our current voting system (sometimes referred to as ‘First Past the Post’) and replace it with a different system called the ‘Alternative Vote’ (AV).
This referendum is being held because it was one of the things the Liberal Democrats demanded in return for their part in forming the coalition government. The Lib Dems will be campaigning for a ‘Yes’ vote in the referendum and a change to the ‘Alternative Vote’ – while I, along with the Prime Minister, the rest of the Conservative Party and certain members of other political parties – will be campaigning for a ‘No’ vote to keep our current system. Here are some of the reasons why:
AV is obscure. Only three countries in the world use AV for their national elections: Fiji, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. In Fiji, they’re about to get rid of it. In Australia, 6 out of 10 voters want to return to the British system.
AV is unfair. Supporters of fringe parties can end up having their vote counted five or six times – and potentially decide the outcome of the election – while people who backed the mainstream candidates only get one vote.
AV is unwanted. Even the Yes campaigners don’t really want AV. Before the general election, the Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg described AV as ‘a miserable little compromise’. Another senior Lib Dem, Chris Huhne, said that ‘it does not give voters real power’.
AV in expensive. Holding the referendum is going to cost the country £90 million, and AV itself would make elections more expensive. Counting the votes would take much longer, either by hand or on costly new electronic counting machines – and local taxpayers would end up footing the bill.
If you would like to find out more about the referendum, or if you would like to sign up to support the ‘No’ campaign, I encourage you to visit their website – www.no2av.org – and to sign up for their weekly email newsletter. You can also follow them on Twitter – www.twitter.com/no2av.
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Posted by colin page, 19:10, Mon 4 April 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
not only is AV wanted its the only way that we will ever get a representative government in this country it may have escaped your notice but your in a minority government representing less than 47% of the population.........worried about losing your seat on the gravy train are you
Posted by R.A.Cole., 22:08, Mon 4 April 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
What a load of rubbish
In the Conservative Party Leadership election of 2005, Mr Cameron initially received the votes of only 56 MPs, while his rival David Davis's was 'first past the post' with 62. It was 'second preference' votes that enabled him to move ahead in subsequent rounds, as the candidate most acceptable to the majority of Conservative MPs and Members. For Mr Cameron, and most Conservative supporters, to vote against a similar system in the Referendum on May 5th seems very odd indeed.
All of your other points are untrue. AV is not obscure, it is used in many elections for many posts etc. AV is wanted by many people who want a representative government. AV is much fairer than the present system, voters will not have to resort to tactical votes but will have the oportunity to vote for their real choice without wasting the vote. Maybe AV is not first choice but it is a step in the right direction. AV will not add to costs as electronic voting is not required nor will the count take much longer.
Posted by SSARMCA, 10:59, Wed 6 April 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
We have 1,000,000 signatures supporting change even further. The game is up following our man's exposé of the MPs and Peers expenses scandal. The fact while our elderly veterans are in poverty our PM gives and extra £650million to Pakistan in addition to the massive Overseas Development Aid of £11.4 billions which they have a share. This is a country that spends its money to maintain Nuclear Weapons of Mass destruction that one day could be used against us. That with the £46million a day EU membership fees, £6billion occupying Afghanistan and another £10 million a day for the no fly zone over Libya. Our veterans have no security of tenure in private rented homes and the shortfall between the rent paid and housing benefits they must make up from a miserly pension of £97.65 a week. We have over 1.5 million homeless yet over 1 million boarded up houses. Many are social housing owned by councils. The current system is not working. SSARMCA Soldier Sailor Airman Royal Marines Commando Association NGO Member of the Coalition of the International Criminal Court at The Hague PO Box 155 - England - NR30 1AA.
Posted by Madeline Jan, 17:22, Fri 15 April 2011: (Is this post abusive?) #
I've been out of the country in the USA for the past three weeks and have been frustrated in not being able to reply to this nonsense promptly. Perhaps you would like our electoral system to be as corrupt as the one over there (which is first past the post). Maybe you approve of the way votes there are bought by lobbyists and congressmen are bribed with government grants for their constituencies. Don't try to tell me that horse trading between groups only goes on in systems where a form of PR holds sway.
Also don't introduce that red herring about electronic voting being essential for the counting of AV. They have no such thing in Australia but they do in first past the post USA, and we all know about hanging chads and machines which mysteriously don't work there.
You could also explain to Baroness Warsi that the BNP are opposed to AV and that they see it as being of no help to them. Scare tactics like that merely irritate people and they backfire.
I am tired of the electorate being regarded as simpletons who can't count up to three and of being told that I'm not interested in such complicated matters. This just shows how out of touch you are with the electorate and in what contempt you hold us.
Our system is broken, archaic and rotten. Does it not worry you that more and more people see it for what it is and are turning away from conventional politics? Will you feel yourself to be a legitimate legislator when only a small handful of people still consider it worth voting? AV may not be perfect. I doubt whether any system is, and the present system certainly isn't. We have to start somewhere to make you take our concerns seriously, so I shall definitely be voting 'yes' in May.