Tag Archives: av referendum

Nick T

LibLink: Chris Huhne – AV referendum: why progressives must unite to vote yes

By Nick T | Mon 2nd May 2011 - 7:25 pm

On Sunday, Liberal Democrat energy secretary Chris Huhne joined the Green’s Caroline Lucas and Labour’s John Denham to pen a piece for the Observer, calling on all progressives in Britain to vote Yes in the Thursday’s referendum on the voting system. It garnered headlines on the day thanks to a paragraph critical of the Tories, but it actually makes some very sound points about why all those who see themselves as on the ‘left’ of British politics should be voting Yes (as, incidentally, did Will Hutton in the same newspaper on the same day).

Here’s a sample of what Huhne, …

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged , , and | 67 Comments
Mark Pack

Three-quarters of Lib Dem manifesto becoming government policy – independent research

By Mark Pack | Mon 2nd May 2011 - 5:53 pm

Sunday’s Politics Show featured the results of research by independent academics into how each party in the Coalition Government is doing at getting its polices enacted.

The conclusion? Three-quarters (75%) of the Liberal Democrat manifesto is being turned into government policy, compared to noticeably less (60%) of the Conservative manifesto, as illustrated in this screenshot:

Politics Show screenshot

(For a sample of those Lib Dem policies being put into action see the excellent site What The Hell Have The Lib Dems Done?)

Conservative blogger Tim Montgomerie and Lib Dem blogger and Federal Policy Committee (FPC) member Linda Jack were both interviewed to discuss these results and other aspects of the coalition’s future:

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Posted in News | Also tagged , , and | 1 Comment
Nick T

“Take AV seriously: it has advantages over PR”

By Nick T | Mon 2nd May 2011 - 4:25 pm

One of the common criticisms of the alternative vote is that it doesn’t produce parliaments that proportionally represent the wishes of the people, which is largely true. Such a criticism rests, of course, on the premise that proportionality is the most important facet of an electoral system. However it’s also worth pointing out that there are things that the alternative vote delivers which proportional systems do not, which is the subject of a recent post by John Ashton.

Here’s a sample of what John has to say:

You don’t get far in a discussion of the merits of AV before somebody

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 27 Comments
Adam Bell

Opinion: The Lib Dems should work with unions

By Adam Bell | Mon 2nd May 2011 - 2:54 pm

One of the most egregious arguments put forward by the No2AV campaign has been that the adoption of the alternative vote will necessarily lead to more coalitions. This is to overlook the somewhat obvious fact that all three main political parties in the UK are already coalitions – the Tories representing an alliance of the remnants of the squirearchy and wealthy metropolitan property owners, Labour the remnants of the working class solidarity movement and the Fabian tendency, and the Lib Dems the alliance between the Liberal Party and the SDP. There are multiple factions I haven’t mentioned – sometimes it’s …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 21 Comments
The Voice

Video: The answer is AV. The answer is YES!

By The Voice | Mon 2nd May 2011 - 8:53 am

Paddy Ashdown explains why:

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged | 3 Comments
Mark Pack

Hey ho, it’s another Parliamentary election by AV coming our way

By Mark Pack | Sat 30th April 2011 - 11:27 am

Clearly tis the season to do elections by AV because in addition to a new member of the Lords being elected by the alternative vote at the moment (postal ballot papers went out during the week), there is now another AV election on its way.

Baroness Hayman has announced she will be stepping down as Speaker in the Lords in July. Her replacement will be elected by the alternative vote, just as she was in 2006. The Lords isn’t unusual in using preferential or multi-round elections in this respect, because the Speaker in the Commons is elected over multiple rounds …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 3 Comments
Helen Duffett

Use the new Facebook app while campaigning this weekend #YES2AV #LibDems

By Helen Duffett | Sat 30th April 2011 - 9:43 am

When you’re out campaigning this weekend for the elections and Fairer Votes referendum, make sure you let your friends on Facebook and Twitter know what you’ve been up to.

Hundreds of people are already using Lib Dem Voice’s new Facebook app to do just this. It’s a great way of building up a buzz around our campaigning – and the more someone sees their friends have been campaigning, the more likely they are to join in.

You get a list of actions – select one and publish it to your …

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Mark Pack

Ed Miliband’s close advisor turned by-election candidate snubs Yes2AV campaign

By Mark Pack | Fri 29th April 2011 - 10:16 am

Jon Ashworth, Labour candidate for the Leicester South by-election (and, as Jonathan Ashworth, Labour leader Ed Miliband’s Head of Party Relations) is not exactly trying hard to back his ex-boss’s attempts to win over the Labour Party to AV. Asked whether or not he backed AV he told a public meeting:

Frankly, I don’t really care – I’ve got more important things to think about.

There are some good and genuine electoral reform campaigners in the Labour Party, but this dismissive comment from someone who – if there had been no by-election – would after all have been Head of …

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Helen Duffett

Referendum explainer for kittehs (a reference for the rest of us)

By Helen Duffett | Fri 29th April 2011 - 8:53 am

Is your Cat confused about the referendum on the voting system on the 5th May?

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Posted in YouTube | Also tagged | 2 Comments
The Voice

LibLink: Nick Clegg… AV got the Mayor elected – now he’s voting against it

By The Voice | Wed 27th April 2011 - 3:28 pm

Nick Clegg wrote an article for the Evening Standard yesterday aimed at London voters, who’ll only be voting in the AV referendum on May 5th as London does not have council elections* this year.

As well as outlining the reasons for voting Yes to Fairer Votes, “I believe most Londoners want a new way of electing MPs that cleans up politics, makes MPs work harder and makes every vote count,” Nick busts the myths about AV: “vote-counting machines that don’t exist and won’t be needed. Claims that the alternative vote is too complex for the British people to understand, as …

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Posted in London and News | Also tagged , , , , , and | 24 Comments
The Voice

Nick Clegg’s message to Labour YES supporters

By The Voice | Tue 26th April 2011 - 3:41 pm

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 25 Comments
Nick T

Nick Clegg: “We can improve our democracy for good”

By Nick T | Tue 26th April 2011 - 12:25 pm

On Saturday, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg delivered a speech at an AV rally in Norwich in which he set out the deficiencies of our democracy, and the reasons why AV – combined with other political reforms in the pipeline – will start to fix those problems.

You can read Nick’s speech in full below:

For years now, huge numbers of people have chosen not to vote because they think it doesn’t matter.

At the election before last it got so bad that more people didn’t vote than voted for the winning party.

And when you think how unfair our current electoral system is,

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 14 Comments
Mark Pack

Election for new Parliamentarian starts this week – by AV

By Mark Pack | Tue 26th April 2011 - 8:55 am

Yup, you read that right. No need to wait until the referendum. No need even for there to be a Yes vote in the referendum. For this week sees the start of voting for a new Parliamentarian, elected by the alternative vote.

For Wednesday sees ballot papers being issued that curiosity of an election, a by-election for the hereditary peers in the House of Lords. (Weird isn’t it how it’s the hereditaries get a form of election?) Elected by the alternative vote.

This follows the death earlier this year of Lord Monson, and as he was a Crossbencher his replacement will …

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 9 Comments
Stephen Tall

The Voice’s Easter Monday Pick of the #Yes2AV Posters

By Stephen Tall | Mon 25th April 2011 - 5:55 pm

We highlghted the new Facebook group YES to Alternative Vote on 5th May a couple of weeks ago here on Lib Dem Voice — and offered four examples of the site’s alternative YES campaign posters.

Well, as a Bank Holiday treat, here are four more: (Warning: with a little bit of sweariness for the easily offended.)

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Posted in News | 4 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Nick Clegg on the “lies, misinformation and deceit” of the No to AV campaign

By Nick T | Sun 24th April 2011 - 6:25 pm

Today’s Independent on Sunday has a much-publicised interview with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg in which he rebukes – in strong terms – the tactics of the No to AV campaign. He makes no visible attempt, either, to exclude the prime minister from his comments – not least because he is one of those guilty of repeating the untruth, for example, that the alternative vote will require expensive electronic counting machines. As the piece makes clear, some of this rhetoric is undoubtedly part of a strategy designed to aid the Liberal Democrats in various upcoming elections, but there is clearly …

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 11 Comments
Mark Pack

Dan Snow on why the alternative vote is preferable to first past the post

By Mark Pack | Sun 24th April 2011 - 1:55 pm

I’ve mixed feelings about celebrities endorsing a campaign one way or the other. They certainly should be as free as the rest of us to express their views in public, but unless the cause of their celebrity gives them a particular expertise in the subject there’s no particular reason to be swayed by their views beyond those of anyone else.

However, there is one other exception to this, which is when a celebrity is so at least in part because they are an expert communicator – and then getting them to argue a case and so make use of their communications skills makes a lot of sense.

So it’s good to see the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign makes good use of accomplished TV presenter Dan Snow:

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Posted in News | Also tagged | 9 Comments
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
Mark Pack

Baroness Warsi’s car-crash interview on AV

By Mark Pack | Sat 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?):

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 10 Comments
Mark Pack

Voting experts unanimously reject first past the post

By Mark Pack | Sat 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:

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 20 Comments
Nick T

Nick Clegg: “AV gives people more power, more choice”

By Nick T | Fri 22nd April 2011 - 12:25 pm

Yesterday morning, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg delivered a speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research think tank on political reform, particularly on the need to change the UK’s voting system as part of the ‘new politics’. The speech was trailed on the Voice here.

You can read the text of Nick’s speech below. (We also linked to Nick’s Telegraph piece yesterday here.)

Liberals have been champions of political reform since the formation of our party more than a century and a half ago.
House of Lords reform, party funding, devolution – and of course, reform of the voting

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged and | 15 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Nick Clegg – AV is a surefire way of giving power to the people

By Nick T | Thu 21st April 2011 - 9:02 pm

Over at the Telegraph, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg has a piece setting out some of the reasons why people should vote to switch to the alternative vote next month. It’s a good attempt to move the debate back to one about the necessity for change, rather than the rather facile, negative one that has dominated in recent weeks, and, yes, remind people of the acute anger which was felt over the abuse by MPs of their expenses system, and the symptomatic nature of that issue.

Here’s a sample of Nick’s article:

When I’m explaining the problems of the current system to

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 26 Comments
The Voice

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

By The Voice | Wed 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 …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 4 Comments
Mark Pack

The Yes2AV campaign has persuaded me to change my mind

By Mark Pack | Wed 20th April 2011 - 8:55 am

I’ve long been sceptical about the scope for online fundraising in British politics. That’s partly because I’ve seen a sequence of American political consultants come to the UK, say they know much better than Brits, promise lots and then raise not very much – across the political spectrum. I’ve also seen a sequence of people from Britain go, “Oooh! American! Shiny! Must be better!”, promise lots and then raise not very much – again, across the political spectrum.

Having been responsible for (along with Ashley Lumsden and Martin Tod) the first candidate website in the UK to take credit card donations, …

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged , , and | 13 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink: Jo Swinson – “You just don’t need voting machines for AV”

By Helen Duffett | Tue 19th April 2011 - 5:47 pm

The TotalPolitics blog has an interview this week with Jo Swinson MP, in which she gets down to some mythbusting about the referendum on the voting system for the UK Parliament. Here’s an excerpt:

The only voting machines that I’ve been aware of were for counting the local council elections. I mean you just don’t need voting machines for AV. Have they ever managed to answer that question as to why they think it would? I’ll give you an example right, in my constituency, in the last two years we’ve had two by-elections in the council. Now when

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 17 Comments
Nick T

LibLink: Paddy Ashdown – The AV vote matters – the no campaign’s scaremongering shows it

By Nick T | Sun 17th April 2011 - 9:26 am

With the AV referendum drawing closer – and postal votes hitting doormats this weekend – there’s plenty of coverage of it in today’s newspapers, including a rather excellent piece in The Observer by former Liberal Democrat Leader Paddy Ashdown. The majority of Paddy’s piece has its sights firmly set on the increasingly pernicious NO campaign, most pertinently on this week’s “bizarre” intervention into the debate by the chancellor George Osborne –  which unsurprisingly makes it onto The Observer front page.

Here’s an extract of what Paddy has to say:

What I am perplexed and deeply disturbed by is that those

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged and | 30 Comments
Nick T

Switch to AV would not boost BNP

By Nick T | Fri 15th April 2011 - 5:25 pm

The British National Party has featured surprisingly prominently in the AV campaign so far, since their introduction into the debate by the NO campaign. The BNP are, of course, firmly positioned in the NO camp, not least because they know that they wouldn’t have a hope of winning a Parliamentary election under the system – as their deputy chairman Simon Darby acknowledged to Channel 4’s FactCheck team yesterday.

This comes on the back of a report by the IPPR think tank which analysed the claim of the NO campaign that under AV, second preferences of BNP voters would be decisive …

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Posted in News | Also tagged , and | 13 Comments
Tim Farron MP

Tim Farron writes… Fairer Votes: so close we can almost touch it

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 15th April 2011 - 3:21 pm

With just three weeks to go until the Scottish, Welsh and local elections as well as a little thing we like to call the most important referendum of our lives so far, this really is the final push to the finish line.

Let’s not pretend that our national poll ratings are going to give us a boost on the ground because they are not. Normally at this time of year we are preparing to buck national trends and create our own local success stories. Back in 1989, when the Lib Dems were on a poll rating of 0%, we’d just had …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged | 36 Comments
Helen Duffett

Campaigners! Get the new Facebook app #YES2AV #LibDems

By Helen Duffett | Fri 15th April 2011 - 9:53 am

Lib Dem Voice have launched a new Facebook app to make it easy for you to let your friends on Facebook and Twitter know what campaigning you’ve been doing.

This is a great way of building up a buzz around our campaigning – and the more someone sees their friends have been campaigning, the more likely they are to join in.

You get a list of actions – select one and publish it to your newsfeed.

Some actions are of the simple “I have done” variety whilst others have the …

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 2 Comments
Helen Duffett

Yes2AV Referendum Broadcast

By Helen Duffett | Tue 12th April 2011 - 1:17 pm

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Posted in News | 36 Comments
Helen Duffett

LibLink: Tim Farron’s viewpoint on the AV referendum

By Helen Duffett | Mon 11th April 2011 - 12:54 pm

The BBC is asking a variety of people to give their view on the 5 May referendum on reforming the voting system.

Today it’s Liberal Democrat party president Tim Farron’s turn:

Did you know that most of us have an MP that we voted against?

That our elections are decided by a small number of voters in marginal seats? That the worst expenses scandals occurred in safe seats, many of which hadn’t changed party since the Second World War?

Our current voting system, first-past-the- post, isn’t fit for purpose anymore and is failing us.

It means that most people’s votes don’t count; it’s created

…

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged | 6 Comments
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