Tag Archives: electoral reform

New Liberal Democrat Electoral Reform Group

By Caron Lindsay | Published 14th December 2011 - 6:55 pm

There’s nothing that warms the cockles of most Liberal Democrat hearts quite like electoral reform. Those of us who attended Federal Conference found ourselves approached by very nice young people with clipboards who invited us to join a new organisation, Liberal Democrats for Electoral Reform. LDER styles itself as “the home for Liberal Democrats who want to see a fairer and more effective voting system.”

Today, their acting chair, Crispin Allard sent out an e-mail to all the supporters who’d signed up.

It has been a while since we were in touch at Federal Conference, so I thought I should update

…

Posted in News | 16 Comments

What part of Yes do you not understand?

By James Graham | Published 6th December 2011 - 9:54 am

We don’t normally republish lengthy pieces from other people’s blogs, but in the case of James Graham’s review of Don’t Take No For An Answer by Lewis Baston and Ken Ritchie, which doubles up as a detailed post-mortem on the AV referendum, we’re happy to throw those rules out of the window because of both the post’s excellence and the importance of the issues to future campaigning and hopes for electoral reform.

So here is a slightly revised version of the post which first appeared on James’s blog. You can also read Mark Pack’s (much shorter!) review of Don’t …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged av referendum, electoral reform society, featured, ken ritchie, lewis baston, unlock democracy | 21 Comments

Opinion: Never Mention “STV” Again

By Alex Wilcock | Published 17th September 2011 - 3:15 pm

The Liberal Democrat Conference opens today in Birmingham with perhaps the most depressing talking shop ever put on a Lib Dem Agenda. It’s the consultative session for the “May 2011 Election Review”: a big drop in the popular vote; a major setback on local councils; a disaster in Scotland; a total and utter thrashing in the AV referendum. And it’s the last that looks the most hopeless.

Is electoral reform finished for good, or at least for a generation? Instead of endlessly debating what went wrong, there’s one major change we can make right now to improve things next time: …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged birmingham 2011 conference, proportional representation, single transferable vote | 29 Comments

5 posts to read before casting your Electoral Reform Society council vote

By Stephen Tall | Published 20th August 2011 - 3:55 pm

If like me you’re a member of the Electoral Reform Society, you’ll have recently received a thick wad of paperwork through your letterbox. The reason? It’s time for the election to the Council of the ERS. The deadline for voting is this Friday, 26th August, so time’s not on your side to wade through the 53 manifestos of those standing for election.

Simon McGrath wrote about the elections here on Lib Dem Voice this week, sparking an interesting discussion thread. But here’s a further five posts (in no particular order) I’d personally recommend reading before deciding how to …

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral reform society | 10 Comments

Opinion: Private sector tenants are disenfranchised

By Duncan Stott | Published 10th July 2011 - 2:15 pm

There has been a lively debate on Lib Dem Voice this week on housing policy. Well-argued articles from Alex Marsh, Mike Tuffrey and Stephen Gilbert have ignited equally interesting debates in the comments. All sorts of intriguing policy ideas have been proposed to address the growing crisis in housing supply.

However, a great idea is just the starting point on the long journey to create a successful policy. For a mainstream party with ambitions to form the next government, it is crucial that ideas enjoy popular support with voters. Housing development invokes strong feelings amongst the electorate, both …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alex marsh, housing, mike tuffrey, stephen gilbert | 13 Comments

Independent View: Time for Lib Dems to ditch STV

By Anthony Butcher | Published 21st May 2011 - 6:14 pm

With the loss of the AV referendum, electoral reformers across Britain are now looking at what went wrong and what changes they can make for the future to ensure it doesn’t happen again. We need our political parties to do the same, and that means a re-evaluating their electoral reform policies.

As absurd as it is, the perceived complexity of AV was a significant factor in its rejection by the public. The whole concept of preferential voting has now been tainted for a generation as overly complicated. If we are to engage the public interest in the future we need to …

Posted in The Independent View | Also tagged electoral reform society, STV | 52 Comments

LibLink: Chris Huhne – No reform now means bigger reform later

By Nick Thornsby | Published 13th May 2011 - 3:55 pm

The Independent on Sunday featured an article by Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, arguing that, while the AV referendum result was clearly a setback for electoral reformers, the pressures that still exist within the system will at some point make change inevitable. Now that such a change has been delayed, Chris argues, when the time for reform does come again, it will be on a much bigger scale than the relatively modest reform that AV would have been.

Here’s a sample:

The problems to which electoral reformers are responding have not gone away and will continue to demand an answer. British society

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged chris huhne, independent on sunday | 14 Comments

Baroness Warsi’s car-crash interview on AV

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd April 2011 - 4:35 pm

It’s not quite Jeremy Paxman vs Michael Howard, but there’s a definite echo of it with Adam Boulton’s repeated questioning and Baroness Warsi’s unwillingness to answer. So if you’ve missed it doing the rounds on Twitter and Facebook so far, here it is to enjoy (or is that suffer?):

(One point on which Adam Boulton lets Baroness Warsi get away with an inaccuracy, by the way, is on how university seat MPs used to be elected in Britain …

Posted in News | Also tagged adam boulton, av referendum, sayeeda warsi | 10 Comments

Voting experts unanimously reject first past the post

By Mark Pack | Published 23rd April 2011 - 11:23 am

The London School of Economics reports:

22 voting theory specialists voted to select the “best voting procedure” to elect one out of three or more candidates.

Each voter chose from a list of 18 nominated voting procedures as many as she/he approved of. From a possible maximum of 22 votes, First Past The Post (FPTP) – also known as Plurality Voting – received no votes. Approval Voting won the contest with 15 votes. The Alternative Vote (AV) took second place with 10 votes.

Meanwhile the Yes To Fairer Votes campaign has released a new campaign video:

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, london school of economics | 20 Comments

Go and see Nick Clegg’s electoral reform speech tomorrow morning

By The Voice | Published 20th April 2011 - 4:49 pm

Tis the day for tickets for events in London it would seem, as the IPPR have been in touch about a few spaces left for tomorrow’s speech on electoral reform from Nick Clegg:

The Shape of the New Politics
Keynote speech by Rt Hon Nick Clegg MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Thursday 21 April 2011, (9.45am for) 10 – 11am
ippr offices, 14 Buckingham St, 4th Floor, London, WC2N 6DF

Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg MP, will give a keynote speech at ippr outlining the case for the Alternative Vote as part …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, ippr, nick clegg | 4 Comments

PODCAST: AV referendum debate at Gladstone Club

By The Voice | Published 10th April 2011 - 3:27 pm

On Monday 4th April, in the run-up to the AV referendum, the Gladstone Club hosted a debate in the National Liberal Club on electoral reform which featured Lib Dem Voice’s co-editor Mark Pack and the Chairman of the Edmund Burke society, Ian Alston. Both took a look at the lessons which can be learnt from history by those deciding how to vote in the referendum.

Posted in Podcasts | Also tagged av referendum, featured, ian alstom, mark pack | 3 Comments

“AV is a very British reform” – watch Nick Clegg’s speech

By Mark Pack | Published 10th April 2011 - 1:30 pm

Yesterday Nick Clegg gave an excellent speech at the London Region Liberal Democrats conference, putting the case for a Yes vote in May’s AV referendum. I tried out filming it on my iPad, an experience that mostly worked pretty smoothly*, and you can watch the resulting footage here:

A transcript of Nick Clegg’s electoral reform speech is in the post from yesterday.

* The three main lessons are (a) use software to minimise camera shake, (b) film in landscape and (c) films less than 10 minutes …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, mike tuffrey, nick clegg | Leave a comment

David Schneider supports the Alternative Vote

By Mark Pack | Published 10th April 2011 - 10:57 am

Two minutes, twenty-one seconds of humorous campaigning for electoral reform courtesy of David Schneider. Enjoy:

(Also available on the BBC website here.)

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, david schneirder | 1 Comment

Opinion: Fairer votes – the Pret A Manger test

By Stuart Bonar | Published 9th April 2011 - 4:57 pm

There are lots of ways to make the case for a fairer voting system for electing MPs, but I think I may have come up with the most novel. I was in the staff kitchen at work the other day when colleagues starting chatting about the referendum, triggered by a newspaper article about it. They were split between the YES camp and the NO camp, both drawing on what seemed like standard arguments deployed by both campaigns.

I started trying to win over the antis, but wasn’t really getting anywhere. Then a thought occurred to me. I was peckish at the …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged av referendum, jonathan wallace | 29 Comments

The animals are back … this time to explain the alternative vote

By Mark Pack | Published 9th April 2011 - 8:57 am

Following the success of their video explaining the problems with first past the post, the animals are back – this time to explain how the Alternative Vote works:

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, featured | 6 Comments

Tag Archives: electoral reform

Search

Poll