Author Archives: Andrew Jones

Opinion: Lib Dems should not shelve House of Lords reform

Despite our best efforts, we Liberal Democrats failed last Thursday to make electoral reform sexy. Quelle surprise. The economy is faltering, public services have a shaky future and, frankly, how people vote for their MP’s is not of major concern to the British people.

Using my trusty retrospectoscope, I can tell you that the Yes campaign got the message wrong, and it did not resonate with people. The campaign went for the anti-politics, anti-politician approach of saying they were offering the people a way to make their MP’s work harder and suffer more. Britons shrugged. The fundamental nature in which politics …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , , and | 14 Comments

Opinion: The Flawed Logic of No to AV, Yes to PR

As a supporter and campaigner for a Yes vote in the referendum on the 5th of May, I have often faced the argument that, “I support a proportional system, but AV is not proportional, so I will be voting No”. A prima facie logical argument – if you do not like AV, then why on earth would you vote for it? Big names in the world of electoral reform have signed up to this “No to AV, Yes to PR” ethos, including Lord David Owen, one of the Gang of Four. According to the No to AV, Yes to …

Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , and | 26 Comments
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Recent Comments

  • Simon Robinson
    'One Nation Liberals' sounds an interesting group, but googling to find out about them draws pretty much a complete blank, apart from a Guardian article about C...
  • Mark Smulian
    Good to see Attila Borzak still active in the party (see Bosmere above). I recall him from London Liberal Party in the mid-1980s when he was also one of the ver...
  • Steve Trevethan
    Thanks to Tom Arms and Matt Wardman for the relevant and interesting article and comment. In short, might it be that the USA opposes the U. N. because its ba...
  • Chloe
    Paul; At that rate are you suggesting Reform will struggle to hold onto their remaining MPs at the next election ? I understand you're narrative, but let's not ...
  • Nonconformistradical
    Jason Connor asks a fair question:- "I do wonder what level of support these LD candidates are getting. Did leaflets go out or just paper candidates?" Were ...