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Vote Yes!

Tomorrow is the the vote to decide what system we want to elect our MPs to Westminster. First-past-the-post, the obvious system to use when 90% of people voted for two parties, is not a fair system to use in a multi-party democracy.

AV, however, is a simple, common-sense solution to having fair votes in a multi-party democracy:


Most elections under first-past-the-post are won in a small number of marginal seats. This increases apathy in our political system, as most people think that their vote won't make a difference. The public are getting more and more disenchanted with politics, and politicians. This is dangerous for demoncracy.

Under AV, your vote is much more likely to make a difference. AV reduces the number of safe seats and increases the number of marginals. Put simply, it gives more power to the voter. Full-stop. It's more democratic.

And I have to say the "No to AV" arguments are misleading to the point of being outright lies. And you have to wonder why they've not wanted to debate the merits of the two systems. Instead all they can say is "it's expensive" which is simply not true, and "it's too complicated" which is insulting to the British people.

But don't take my word for it. Go to the No to AV website, the Yes to AV website, and the BBC website for an objective view and decide for yourself. That's what I did.

Comments

DairyStateDad said…
Disclaimer #1: I have no personal dog in this fight as we say here in the U.S. because, well, I'm here in the U.S.

Disclaimer #2: I am absolutely for this approach and would like to see it here, as well. If I understand correctly, this is what has been called in our country "Instant Runoff voting." I think it is the right thing to do and I hope "Yes" wins in your referendum.

But all that said -- in the one actual experience I have had with Instant Runoff (when a group of about 400-500 Unitarian Universalists were voting to decide among a choice of three or four possible permanent sites for our weekly UU summer camp), after all the votes were tallied, including bringing in the 2nd and 3rd place choices, the final selection won by a margin of


Just. One. Vote.

Just sayin'... :-)
6:27 pm
Rich said…
I totally agree!

Bit of cross-blog advertising here, sorry, but I was getting frustrated with the verbosity of 'yes' campaigns so I tried to sum up the reasons in a nutshell here:

http://richd.me/2011/05/the-yes-vote-needs-you/
6:40 pm
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