As well as voting in local elections on May 5th we now have the opportunity to vote in a referendum to change our voting system from the old First Past the Post system to the Alternative Vote system.Many people including various celebrities are hailing AV as some exciting new concept that will make our voting system more democratic and more accountable to the people.Well don't get too excited cause AV aint all it's cracked up to be in fact it's a lousy offering from the coalition government to keep the LibDems happy.The voting referendum was offered to Nick Clegg as part of a sweetner to join the coalition government.Of course the Lib Dems preferred to have Proportional Representation but have settled with a lousy piece meal offering in the form of AV.The tories will never offer Proportional Representation to a referendum because this would mean TRUE democracy to the British people.It would mean every political persuasion across the spectrum would have a voice and proper representation.It would also mean for the very first time in history other parties would have to work together in Westminster with the established LIB/LAB/CON parties.
The First Past The Post system has been used in Britain for over well over a 100 years and ever since the second world war we've only ever known Labour or Conservative governments.The system works by one person one vote ,the candidate with the most votes gets elected.It's very simple and easy to understand.
AV is not so straight forward and can come across as a little confusing.The voter is handed a ballot sheet with a list of candidates and places his/her vote in order of preference for each of the candidates listed until they either run out of candidates or don't care too much for the rest of the line up.On the first round of voting if the a candidate wins over a 50% majority then the winning candidate is duly elected.If there is no candidate with over 50% clear majority then the candidate with the lowest vote count is eliminated and a second round of voting commences.The previous votes for second preference candidates are redistributed and this process is repeated until a winner emerges.This process is not only lengthy but very costly to implement.It is estimated that AV would cost £250 million!A very large sum of money for a system that won't deliver real democracy!
The main benefactors from AV would be the Liberal Democrats and the biggest losers would be the smaller parties like UKIP or the BNP.A mock election was recently trialled on BBC Radio 5 Live and the BNP was knocked out in the first round and UKIP was knocked out in the third round.Supporters in both the Yes and No camps have been using the BNP as a bogeyman to scare people.The true reality is the BNP suffer badly under both voting systems,so to use this as a means of winning support is severely misleading!
Here is the 2010 General election results under First Past The Post
Con Lab LibDem SNP PC Green UKIP BNP
307 258 57 6 3 1 0 0
2010 General Election results under AV
Con Lab LibDem SNP PC Green UKIP BNP
281 262 79 5 3 1 0 0
As you can see from the results above AV would return more MPs for the LibDem's.
The referendum we really should be having is a vote for Proportional Representation.This would give a better representation in parliament of all political persuasions.
Let's now take a look at what our parliament would look like if the 2010 General Election was conducted under the PR voting system
Con Lab LibDem SNP PC Green UKIP BNP
235 189 150 11 4 7 20 12
Proportional representation is far more advantageous towards smaller parties and gives a more balanced parliament with all views represented.MP's would have to work a lot harder and would be forced to make alliances with smaller parties to get bills voted through.Instead of tactical voting to keep Labour out,people could for the very first time vote for what they really believe in.The wasted vote would become a thing of the past!
So what should we do on May 5th?Do we vote yes to AV in the hope that it could be a spring board to PR.Do we vote no and keep First Past the Post because it's better the devil you know or do you abstain altogether as the outcome will make no difference to who holds the reins of power.
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