Thursday 5 May 2011
My last word on AV.
My last word on the Alternative Vote, well, maybe. I was pondering on the Alternative Vote earlier and thought of a delicious irony if the 'Yes' campaign win and we adopt this electoral system. The irony is this: in the 19th century the vote was limited to the rich and the educated (men); even well into the 20th century two votes were given to graduates of many universities and those who had businesses in one constituency and lived in another. Now, if we adopt AV we will be giving two votes to the mad (voters who pick the Monster Raving Looney party as their first choice), and to the truly nasty (those who vote BNP or UKIP). Perhaps will be left to reflect on a time when we gave one person one vote. If the 'Yes' campaign wins today History will have turned a full circle.
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Tim, I am genuinely surprised that a man of your education can fail to understand AV! Or are you trying to mislead? AV does not gives voters two votes, just the opportunity to choose who they would prefer to win. If someone chooses to vote 'Monster Raving Looney Party', they are entitled to do so under our democracy, whether it be under FPTP or AV. Under AV, the vast majority would still vote Labour, or Tory, and then put Green, Socialists and Independents behind them according to their beliefs. There is absolutely no evidence that racists would benefit from a fairer voting system. Of course, the only truly democratic system is PR, but now this opportunity has been wasted, we will have to wait a long time to be able to change our unfair system again.
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