Tag Archives: AV

Kelly-Marie Blundell

Opinion: Cameron is wrong on AV and dog-tired governments

By Kelly-Marie Blundell | Sun 24th April 2011 - 12:44 pm

Cameron launched a paternalistic attack on potential Yes to AV Voters in The Evening Standard this week. I would have commented earlier but I was incredulous that such arguments could be put across to persuade people against voting for AV in the forthcoming referendum.

The strongest reason Cameron dictated was that FPTP allowed the public to kick out “dog-tired” governments. The irony therein is that the Coalition has created fixed term parliaments.

As a result, a “dog-tired” government can only be removed with a motion of no confidence outside of this period. The last Motion of No Confidence was

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 7 Comments
The Voice

Clegg shows Sheffield he’s up for the fight

By The Voice | Tue 22nd February 2011 - 4:28 pm

Nick Clegg’s visit to Sheffield yesterday included the first in a new series of town hall meetings – this one in partnership with local newspaper the Sheffield Star:

THEY say the best form of defence is attack, which is exactly what Sheffield Hallam MP and the Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg decided to do by launching a new wave of meet the people sessions, here in his home city.

Mr Clegg is the first to admit he is under fire at the moment. He faces a barrage of criticism about his decision to renege on his promise not to vote for

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 31 Comments
The Voice

Peers who voted against AV will now use it in their own by-election

By The Voice | Wed 9th February 2011 - 11:11 am

Peers who are currently trying to block a referendum on the use of the Alternative Vote in General Elections are about to use AV to replace one of their own members in the House of Lords.

The BBC’s James Landale reports:

The cause of this absurdity is the late Lord Strabolgi, a legend in the House of Lords, who died last December, aged 96.

He was one of 92 hereditary peers who were allowed to remain in the Lords in 1999 when all the others were kicked out.

It was agreed then that when any of the 92 died, there would be a

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Posted in Election law and Parliament | Also tagged and | 6 Comments
Keith Sharp

Opinion: Getting the AV and Lib Dem message right

By Keith Sharp | Mon 29th November 2010 - 1:31 pm

The ‘No to AV’ campaign is beginning to take shape, and alongside the familiar figures of John Prescott to name but one, some arguments of theirs are also emerging and we have to be firm in rebutting them — especially those which take aim at the Lib Dems. So here we go:

AV will lead to more hung parliaments and coalition governments

Not so. Let’s remember that AV is NOT a proportional system and there is therefore nothing intrinsic to it that spells out more likelihood of minority parliaments. Pundits and experts have assessed likely General Election results under AV and there …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 59 Comments
Daniel Henry

Opinion: A suggestion for an amendment to the AV bill

By Daniel Henry | Sat 27th November 2010 - 2:06 pm

This article is easier to follow if you understand how STV and AV works. If you’re not familiar with them, I recommend quickly clicking on the links for explanations.

How STV would clean up politics.
When the electoral reform campaign was for STV, one of the arguments we liked to use was how it would help clean up politics by ending “safe seats”. We call a seat “safe” if it has been held by the same party for a long while and it’s pretty much guaranteed that the candidate who runs for that party will win. This means that some …

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Posted in Op-eds | 69 Comments
Jonathan Featonby

Opinion: Lords avoid falling into Labour’s “elephant trap” – just

By Jonathan Featonby | Sat 27th November 2010 - 10:17 am

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituency Bill advanced to its second reading in the House of Lords earlier this month after narrowly avoiding a referral motion tabled by Labour peer Lord Falconer.

Lord Falconer had argued that the bill was hybrid as it treated two existing parliamentary seats – Orkney and the Western Isles – as special cases that would have been exempt from the constituency boundary redrawing element of the bill.

The motion was defeated by 224 votes to 210, allowing the second reading of the bill to take place.

But there needs to be a closer look as to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 13 Comments
NewsHound

Lib Link: James Graham on electoral reform

By NewsHound | Thu 4th February 2010 - 4:21 pm

James Graham gives Comment is Free the benefit of his views on Gordon Brown’s electoral reform fudge:

AV is the perfect electoral system for Gordon Brown. It enables him to look in two directions at once: supporting a system which ensures that fewer votes are wasted while being resolutely non-proportional. Superficially it sounds like a big deal, but in most elections it will probably only change the result in a handful of seats. And, like all Gordon Brown policies, it has a fair chance of blowing up in his face; because of AV’s habit of exaggerating swings, the system is

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , and | Leave a comment
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