Tag Archives: alternative vote

Opinion: One year on from Tuition Fees: why I’m still a Liberal Democrat

By Harry Matthews | Published 9th December 2011 - 12:51 pm

It’s one year on from the vote on Tuition Fees, so I thought I would lay out some reasons why I, as a student, am still a Liberal Democrat after our great ‘betrayal’.

Although our ministers are having to make tough choices, Liberal Democrats have won a major victory – having a tax cut for the low paid, rather than the very rich, as the Tories would have preferred. Raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 is a good way to correct the disaster Gordon Brown created when he scrapped the 10p tax band. Plus it is a tax cut …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged gordon brown, kirsty williams, nick clegg, pupil premium, tuition fees, youth contract | 25 Comments

Nick Clegg’s irrelevance to loss of AV vote

By Stephen Tall | Published 15th May 2011 - 4:45 pm

How important was Nick Clegg to the loss of the referendum to reform the electoral system? Very important if you believe this anonymous source quoted recently in The Guardian (hat-tip to James Graham):

Last night a senior source in the campaign for the alternative vote admitted they knew “very early on” that there was no chance of winning the referendum and that Clegg had become part of the problem: “Every time Clegg spoke about AV our polling numbers went into free-fall. We knew from very early on, before the new year, that we couldn’t win, our message wasn’t getting

…

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg, referendum | 22 Comments

Lib Dem members say: AV referendum result irrelevant to Coalition’s future

By Stephen Tall | Published 30th April 2011 - 2:35 pm

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of various political issues, the Coalition, and the performance of key party figures. Over 530 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results.

69% say AV referendum result irrelevant to Coalition’s future

LDV asked: Imagine the NO campaign wins the referendum; if this happened do you think the Liberal Democrats should leave the coalition?

…

Posted in LDV Members poll | 17 Comments

Why I’ll be voting Yes to AV on 5th May: it’s all about choice

By Stephen Tall | Published 28th April 2011 - 10:45 am

I will be voting ‘Yes’ to the alternative vote in the referendum on the 5th May. Here’s why.

For me, this referendum is all about choice. The ‘Yes’ campaign stands for giving voters greater choice — the choice to rank candidates standing for election according to our individual preference.

But, in fact, the ‘Yes’ campaign stands for more choice than just that. If you prefer, you don’t have to rank your candidates by preference. That’s right, under the alternative vote, you can express as much preference, or as little preference, as you choose:

If you love only one party —

…

Posted in Op-eds | 43 Comments

Opinion: Must the Alternative Vote benefit the Liberal Democrats?

By Ed Maxfield | Published 17th April 2011 - 10:27 am

John Curtice is a God among psephologists. He is not a man to be criticised lightly. But he left me muttering into my cornflakes when I heard him suggest on the Today Programme that we could be sure AV delivers a benefit to the Lib Dems in terms of seats won.

Now, the national media – even Radio 4’s august news flagship – is not happy dealing in nuance but there are at least three reasons why it is dangerous to make assumptions about future elections fought under AV on the basis of past elections fought on FPTP.

First is whether the …

Posted in News | Also tagged john curtice, nick clegg | 10 Comments

Have you ‘Liked’ the Unofficial YES to AV campaign Facebook page yet?

By Stephen Tall | Published 11th April 2011 - 8:55 am

Remember this — the unofficial Facebook Lib Dem fan group, We got Rage Against the Machine to #1, we can get the Lib Dems into office!, the internet election sensation? (Still going strong with over 146,000 members, by the way.)

Well, the same guys are also behind an unofficial Yes campaign Facebook page also: YES to Alternative Vote on 5th May, with over 3,000 fans to date. The page is replete with links, photos and videos — serious, and erm not so serious — which you can share with your friends’ network on Facebook.

The group has managed …

Posted in News | 2 Comments

Clegg: “AV is a very British reform”

By The Voice | Published 9th April 2011 - 11:15 am

In a month’s time we will know the result — will the British people have voted to modernise our electoral system? The next three and a bit weeks will see some frantic campaigning in the first national referendum in a generation.

Tim Farron is leading the charge for the Lib Dems, as he described here on Lib Dem Voice yesterday. And today Nick Clegg, who as deputy prime minister steered through the legislation to give the public their say, will deliver a speech on the merits of the ‘alternative vote’ in London. You can read the full text below. The …

Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg | 3 Comments

LDVideo: The People Say Yes to AV (‘No Politicians’ Edition)

By Stephen Tall | Published 19th March 2011 - 5:25 pm

The No2AV Campaign has been all too delighted to parade has-been politicians to back up its arguments — the Yes2AV Campaign has rather more wisely stuck to letting the public have its say in this first UK referendum in 35 years.

Here members of the public explain why they’ll be choosing the Alternative Vote this May:

(You can watch it on YouTube here.)

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged electoral reform | Leave a comment

Three cheers for Ed Miliband (shame about his party)

By Stephen Tall | Published 16th March 2011 - 6:40 pm

This evening Labour leader Ed Miliband will urge his party and the public to say yes to fairer votes in this coming May’s referendum.

All of us in favour of electoral reform, and a voting system that puts more power back in the hands of the people, should welcome his personal backing for the alternative vote. Ed, at least, is staying true to what Labour’s 2010 general election manifesto pledged, specifically:

To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for elections

…

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged dan hodges, ed miliband, electoral reform | 30 Comments

The Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign asks: Where does your MP stand on the Alternative Vote?

By Stephen Tall | Published 7th January 2011 - 2:28 pm

Earlier this week, Lib Dem Voice highlighted the No2AV campaign’s embarrassing failure to check whether all the Labour MPs they said were opposed to reforming the UK’s unfair electoral system actually are opposed. It turns out that five of the 114 named were listed wrongly.

As a result of the No camp’s confusion, the Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign is asking the public to help make sure all MPs come clean about which side of the debate they support:

What really matters in this referendum is what the people want, not politicians. But since they are meant to represent us,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral reform, featured | 10 Comments

No2AV campaign left red-faced by list gaffes

By Stephen Tall | Published 5th January 2011 - 7:45 pm

Last week I posted to Lib Dem Voice what I thought to be an accurate list of the 100+ Labour MPs who had proudly announced they would be opposing electoral reform in the May referendum.

I assumed it must be accurate… after all, the list was taken directly from the No2AV campaign’s official website. Surely they would have checked with each MP before publishing their name, I thought. Not carefully enough, it turns out.

As Left Foot Forward has highlighted, five Labour MPs named by No2AV as opponents of electoral reform have been listed incorrectly — take a bow …

Posted in News | Also tagged left foot forward | 31 Comments

The 100-plus Labour MPs publicly opposing electoral reform

By Stephen Tall | Published 30th December 2010 - 7:45 pm

Poor Ed Miliband. In his first speech to the Labour party conference he tried his valiant best to show that Labour had changed, that it was a party which could re-claim the progressive liberalism it so happily junked in the Blair/Brown years.

No more ID cards, detention without trial, control orders etc — so said Ed. And yes to electoral reform in the shape of the alternative vote — so said Ed.

Unfortunately for Ed, not many of his MPs are listening to him. Today, the No2AV campaign proudly announced that over 100 of Labour’s 257 MPs would be opposing …

Posted in News, Opposition watch | Also tagged av referendum, ed miliband, electoral reform, labour party | 57 Comments

Opinion: why the voters are right to be annoyed, but not at the Lib Dems

By Matt Smith | Published 5th November 2010 - 3:20 pm

So, another week, and more policies announced that are definitely not Liberal Democrat in origin. Particularly one close to my liberal heart on the issue of paying for University education. Now that debate will rumble on and on, but I want to look more closely at whether the Lib Dems did indeed “sell out” on their principles, or whether they …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged first past the post | 29 Comments

Opinion: Chris Bryant is right, though he doesn’t know why

By Jonathan Featonby | Published 21st October 2010 - 2:43 pm

As I write, Chris Bryant is arguing during the Whole House committee for the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill that a method for drawing up constituency boundaries that is severely confined by a mathematical formula is misguided.

I completely agree, although possibly for a different reason to the one he uses to support his argument.

Mr Bryant has been arguing that a strict mathematical formula will have to ignore natural geographical and physical boundaries.

It’s true: to bring in the Bill as it stands will create constituencies that are almost constantly shifting and where previously combined communities may very well find themselves …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged single transferable vote, voting reform | 1 Comment

Tag Archives: alternative vote

69% say AV referendum result irrelevant to Coalition’s future

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