Author Archives: Lucy Smith

Where does defeat for AV leave the dream of electoral reform?

By Lucy Smith | Sat 7th May 2011 - 2:54 pm

The votes are in, and counted. The wait is over but for the YES camp it’s the bad news we’ve been dreading, and reform of Westminster elections is now lost for many years at least. So what does a NO vote mean for the future?

For the Liberal Democrats as a party, it’s undoubtedly a bitter pill to swallow having carried the flag of electoral reform for years. The referendum on AV was the jewel in the crown of the coalition concessions, the final offer that made coalition possible. For many activists a change in the voting system has seemed like …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 43 Comments
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