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Tag Archives: av referendum

The booklets that will be going through letterboxes for the AV referendum

By Mark Pack | Wed 16th March 2011 - 12:23 pm

The Electoral Commission has just published copies of the booklets it will be distributing to every household in the UK as part of its public information campaign for May’s AV referendum.

In addition to the England, Scotland and Wales booklets below, there are also versions for Northern Ireland and in Welsh. Both of these, along with details of the research the Electoral Commission carried out in putting the booklets together, are on the Electoral Commission website.

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Posted in Election law | Also tagged electoral commission | 14 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… Why David Owen is wrong on the AV referendum

By Chris Rennard | Mon 14th March 2011 - 12:41 pm

David Owen chose the weekend of the Lib Dem Conference to offer his advice for the AV referendum. Having attacked the ‘First Past the Post’ voting system so vociferously for many years, it may seem odd to some people that he now urges support for this system on May 5th. He says that he hopes for a referendum with an option of a Proportional Representation system instead.

Almost all those people who have consistently supported the cause of electoral reform for much longer than he has take a different view. It is very clear that voting against change on May …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david owen and electoral reform | 32 Comments

Who gets a postal vote in the AV referendum?

By Mark Pack | Mon 14th March 2011 - 8:55 am

Any voter can apply for a postal (or proxy) vote in the usual way for May’s elections, including the AV referendum. However, people who have previously applied for a permanent postal vote may also be entitled to one without having to re-apply.

There are three categories:

1. People who have a permanent postal vote for a UK Parliamentary election – they will get a referendum postal vote too.
2. People who have a permanent postal vote for a local election and are on the register for somewhere that is holding an election in May – they will get a referendum postal vote too …

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Posted in Election law | Also tagged electoral commission and postal voting | 1 Comment

Animals explain the problem with first past the post

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 5:54 pm

Wondering about the merits of first past the post? This video uses the animal kingdom to help explain the problems with it in public elections:

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged electoral reform | 7 Comments

Nick Clegg’s conference speech

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 12:48 pm

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, wearing a Yes To Fairer Votes badge, closed the party’s Sheffield conference with a return to his theme of Alarm Clock Britain:

We’re on the side of the people I call Alarm Clock Britain. On the side of everyone who wants to get up and get on. People who, unlike the wealthy, have no choice but to work hard to make ends meet. People who are proud to support themselves but are only ever one pay cheque from their overdraft. People who believe in self-reliance but who don’t want to live in a dog-eat-dog world.

Who want everyone who can

…

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Posted in Conference and News | Also tagged alarm clock britain and nick clegg | 134 Comments

Tim Farron to lead Lib Dem Yes to Fairer Votes campaign

By Mark Pack | Sun 13th March 2011 - 9:27 am

A party news release brings the news:

Liberal Democrat Party President, Tim Farron has been appointed as Chair of the Liberal Democrat Yes to Fairer Votes campaign.

Commenting, Liberal Democrat Leader and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg said:

“I am delighted that Tim will be spearheading our campaign for a Yes to Fairer Votes.

“This referendum is an historic chance to give voters more say and is something so many British people have fought so long for.

“Tim will lead an excellent campaign and I look forward to working with him.”

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Posted in News | Also tagged electoral reform, nick clegg and tim farron | 20 Comments

A whistlestop tour of Scottish Conference

By Caron Lindsay | Fri 11th March 2011 - 10:27 am

Scottish Liberal Democrats gathered in Perth last weekend for their Spring Conference. I thought that LDV readers might appreciate edited highlights of a lively weekend.

It was a bit strange to turn up to find a huge area around the Perth Concert Hall cordoned off, airport style security and Police everywhere. We’re not used to this sort of thing.

Leader Tavish Scott’s keynote speech hammered home our USP in the forthcoming Scottish election campaign – only the Scottish Liberal Democrats will speak out against a political power grab. SNP, Tories and Labour advocate merging eight police forces to just one. Tavish also …

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Posted in News and Scotland | Also tagged alex white, Danny Alexander, malcolm bruce, Michael Moore, nick clegg and tavish scott | 2 Comments

Generate your own No To AV argument…

By Mark Pack | Sun 27th February 2011 - 4:55 pm

Lib Dem Voice’s own Ryan Cullen (and the man who gives us the great Liberal Democrat blogs aggregator) has put together a handy tool for generating your own No To AV campaign slogans, based on their recent advertising campaign. I suspect the No campaign may not like quite all the slogans you can generate at http://av.argh.tc/o-matic/ though…

Posted in News | Also tagged ryan cullen | 45 Comments

Channel 4’s Factcheck slates No2AV campaign’s claims

By Mark Pack | Sat 26th February 2011 - 1:20 pm

The FactCheck blog has been running its eyes over the claims made by No2AV about how much introducing the alternative vote would cost (the subject too of my letter published in yesterday’s Independent).

Here’s what they conclude:

No to AV claims that the combined costs of a referendum, implementing electronic vote counting and educating voters will cost Britain a cool £250 million. And just over half of this will be splashed out on shiny new electronic vote counting machines, the campaigners say…

The problem is however, that there are no current plans to implement electronic voting machines in the event AV passes…

No

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged electoral reform, matthew elliott and rob richie | 52 Comments

Charles Kennedy MP: No2AV ads “shocking and outrageous”

By Helen Duffett | Fri 25th February 2011 - 11:49 am

Charles Kennedy MP has urged Liberal Democrat members and supporters to take action by registering their disappointment and disgust at the advertising tactics of the No2AV campaign.

The No campaign recently took out a two-page advertisement in the Birmingham Mail claiming that a sick baby “needs a new cardiac facility NOT an alternative voting system”. The ad misleadingly implies that the public must choose between an alternative voting system and frontline services.

Here’s what Charles said in his email this morning:

Over recent days No2AV have published a series of ads in local papers that can be described as distasteful at best,

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged advertising standards authority, birmingham mail, charles kennedy, featured, no2av and yes2av | 17 Comments

Conservative Councillor: Those opposing AV should stop their “misleading statements”

By Nick T | Mon 21st February 2011 - 1:55 pm

Richard Willis is a Conservative Councillor on Reading Borough Councillor, and over on his blog he has a thorough post looking at the pros and cons of both first past the post and the alternative vote. He is particularly unimpressed with the misleading nature of the debate so far, and helpfully shoots down quite a few of the canards propounded by the No campaign:

I have long thought that AV was a good system for use at Parliamentary elections and I have heard nothing from the “No” campaign to persuade me otherwise. Indeed I have been annoyed by the misleading

…

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Posted in News | 27 Comments

Backing for electoral reform in the Scotsman and The Observer

By Mark Pack | Sun 20th February 2011 - 12:55 pm

A leader in The Scotsman / Scotland on Sunday backs a Yes vote in May’s referendum:

The fact that it is AV on offer and not one of the other systems is the product of three specific factors: the offer on PR made by the last Labour government to woo the Lib Dems; the arithmetic of the general election result; and the mechanics of the deal between David Cameron and Nick Clegg that delivered the coalition administration. It is the product of specific circumstances. It is also the only game in town. In the world of realpolitik an academic debate

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged andrew rawnsley, electoral reform and scotsman | 10 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… So what was all the fuss in Parliament about?

By Chris Rennard | Sun 20th February 2011 - 9:25 am

Late on Wednesday night Nick Clegg was at the back of the House of Lords to see Royal Assent granted to the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill.

His presence there emphasised his achievement in getting this Bill through Parliament in time to enable the referendum on switching to the Alternative Vote to take place on May 5th.

Of course people may not vote to change from First Past the Post. But I have never thought that any measure of electoral reform for Westminster would come about without a referendum. The self-preservation instincts of many MPs means that they are never …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged constitutional reform and governance bill, ed miliband, nick clegg and Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill | 10 Comments

Clegg and Miliband both campaign for a Yes vote in referendum

By Mark Pack | Fri 18th February 2011 - 12:05 pm

With May’s AV referendum finally passed by Parliament this week, both Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg have been taking to the public stage to argue for a Yes vote.

Nick Clegg’s speech today majors on how the alternative vote will hold politicians better to account:

Under the Alternative Vote, politicians will need to aim to get half of their constituents to choose them. That means they will have to work harder to appeal to more people than before. It means they will have to reach out to people who were ignored under First Past the Post. It means they will no longer

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged constitutional reform, ed miliband, electoral reform, house of lords and nick clegg | 59 Comments

NO campaign in a muddle over AV costs

By Nick T | Thu 17th February 2011 - 5:25 pm

In a move which even those who oppose the Alternative Vote have found bizarre, the NO to AV campaign has decided that its key message with which it hopes to dissuade voters from voting YES is going to be the apparent cost of changing from First Past The Post to AV. This is a strange strategic decision in itself, but it becomes even more curious now the ‘factual’ basis for the outlandish claims has been demolished at the slightest scrutiny.

The YES campaign wasted no time in putting the NO side’s claims under the spotlight, and they found that:

There are

…

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Posted in News | 42 Comments

Labour’s filibustering and the consequences for political reform

By Mark Pack | Tue 15th February 2011 - 8:55 am

A slightly shorter version of this piece appeared on OurKingdom last week:

The unprecedented filibustering by Labour peers (or rather more accurately, given the splits between hardliners and moderates about Labour’s ranks in the Lords, some Labour peers) of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill is having two unintended side-effects which will be important for the future of political reform.

The most obvious is the way in which Labour’s chosen style of opposition has driven Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers closer together. A more subtle form of opposition might have looked to divide the coalition partners, but repeated late nights …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged electoral reform and Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill | 29 Comments

Opinion: Tories are funding Labour’s squeeze

By Tim Neale | Sat 12th February 2011 - 2:56 pm

There was an interesting article in the Guardian on Saturday.
It describes the upcoming anti-AV campaign. The Labour dominated anti-reform organisation has no intention in discussing the issues. Instead they will target Nick Clegg.

The dinosaurs have abandoned reasoned argument. A mock up of the proposed anti-reform website has the statement, “Under AV the only vote that will count is Nick Clegg’s.” Typical of the hyperbole that characterises British politics at present, and sadly not a surprising.

Since losing the general election, Labour have gone negative on the Liberal Democrats in general and Nick Clegg in particular. They calculate any voters abandoning …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged dinosaurs, notoav and squeeze | 40 Comments

Yes to Fairer Votes: The North-East experience

By Nick T | Thu 10th February 2011 - 5:56 pm

Over on Political Postcards, you can read the first in a series of four posts on how the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign is going in the North-East. The first post looks at the tactics that both sides are deploying to sway voters. Here’s an excerpt:

The Yes campaign are holding firm to their strategy. Strong messages about reform, greater choice and making politicians work harder seem to resonate with wavering voters.

They use the campaign principles from the Obama campaign of ‘Respect, Empower, Include’. Perhaps a bit too sickly sweet for a more cynical British audience but as Obama

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged electoral reform | 2 Comments

Lord Tyler writes: the mischief continues

By Paul Tyler | Thu 10th February 2011 - 3:20 pm

The BBC’s excellent Westminster correspondent, Mark D’Arcy has got the measure of what’s going on in the House of Lords at the moment, and his update is as good as any.

I only question the credit he gives to Lord Falconer, who is far too obviously partisan to attract serious support from the Crossbenchers. It is former Labour Minister – and shrewd operator – Lord (Jeff) Rooker who has twice achieved victory over the Government by bringing a healthy chunk of them along with him. He does it by saying his amendments are meant to be helpful, …

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Posted in News | Also tagged lord falconer | 25 Comments

Dear BBC…

By Mark Pack | Thu 10th February 2011 - 10:25 am

Dear BBC,

I’d like you to reconsider your decision to ban the use of the word “reform” when your staff are reporting or commenting on the proposed changes to the voting system for the House of Commons (as reported in The Independent last month).

Given that the phrase “electoral reform” has been a widely used term for decades to describe all sorts of different proposals to change the electoral system and given that it has been widely used by proponents on all sides of those exchanges too, I’m surprised that you now are of the view that it isn’t an appropriate …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bbc, electoral reform and journalism | 15 Comments

What Labour’s manifesto actually said about electoral reform

By Mark Pack | Fri 4th February 2011 - 10:25 am

It’s become a bit of an urban myth in some (Labour) circles that Labour’s 2010 general election manifesto only promised a referendum on the alternative vote, but didn’t say anything about committing Labour MPs or the Labour Party to a yes vote. But that’s not actually what the manifesto said:

To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for elections to the House of Commons.

To ensure means not only holding a referendum, but also voting Yes.

Posted in News | 64 Comments

Paul Tyler writes… Radicals and reactionaries on the red benches

By Paul Tyler | Wed 2nd February 2011 - 1:00 pm

Julian Glover, writing on the Guardian website, has called the situation in the House of Lords well today. “This is a ceasefire not an armistice,” he says.

As of midday today (Wednesday), Lord “Charlie” Falconer appears to have retreated from the undertakings he was giving earlier in the week to expedite the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies (PVSC) Bill. Labour Peers are apparently determined both delay and elongate the Report Stage, so making it impossible for the AV referendum to take place on May 5th. As Julian Glover says, “the behaviour of a gang of timeserving Labour …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged chris rennard, electoral reform, julian glover and Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill | 8 Comments

The AV referendum: state of play

By Mark Pack | Wed 2nd February 2011 - 8:55 am

With attention understandably focusing on events in the Lords, the actual progress of the campaigns for the electoral reform referendum has had less coverage in the last few weeks. So here’s a quick score-card:

Funding: the No campaign has taken to the media to protest about “big money” funding the Yes campaign. Even as reported by the Telegraph the attacks are pretty thin going, but revealing in one respect. Many expected the No campaign to be well-funded by the sort of large donors who have heavily funded the Tories in the past (not to mention, possibly, trade union funding). However,

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged alun michael, ed miliband and electoral reform | 50 Comments

Deal struck in Lords over Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

By Mark Pack | Tue 1st February 2011 - 8:55 am

From the BBC:

Tory and Labour peers have reached a deal ending the deadlock which threatened to block a 5 May referendum on changing the Westminster voting system, Lords leader Lord Strathclyde has said…

The government accepted in principle an amendment tabled by the convenor of crossbench peers, Baroness D’Souza, which reinstates public inquiries in the boundary review process in certain circumstances.

The crossbench peers’ amendment would allow, but not compel, the Boundary Commission to hold a local inquiry where an objection raised “substantive issues”. Inquiries would take no more than six months…

Lady D’Souza withdrew her amendment, telling peers she was encouraged

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged electoral reform and Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill | 28 Comments

Chris Rennard writes: The row over the AV referendum will bring forward major changes in the House of Lords

By Chris Rennard | Sat 29th January 2011 - 11:30 pm

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill has now had a longer Committee stage in the House of Lords than any legislation taken there since at least 1945. The Bill is not a particularly complicated Bill when compared with, say, the last Labour Government’s Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill. Labour’s last constitutional Bill covered thirteen different areas of constitutional reform (including an AV referendum) and was dealt with in the Commons in a few days by use of a ‘Programme Motion’ (guillotine).

The PVSC Bill has been subject to an extensive and well organised filibuster on Labour’s benches abusing …

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Posted in Op-eds and Parliament | Also tagged electoral reform, house of lords, labour dinosaurs, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, self regulation and Tommy McAvoy | 56 Comments

Crossbenchers increasingly hostile to Labour as government makes boundary changes

By Mark Pack | Wed 26th January 2011 - 10:45 pm

Increasing anger from crossbench peers at Labour’s filibustering in the Lords looks to be preparing the way for either Labour backing down or (for the Lords) highly unusual procedural decisions to end the filibustering. As I put it earlier in the week, if Labour loses the support of the crossbenchers, it will not only lose the struggle over this bill but weaken its ability to successfully oppose other legislation in the future.

At the same time, the government has been showing its willingness to listen to scrutiny rather than filibustering by agreeing to two changes to the ways in which …

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Posted in Election law and News | Also tagged chris rennard, david cameron, parliamentary boundary review, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill and paul tyler | 13 Comments

Compromise and conflict in the air in Lords stand-off over filibustering

By Mark Pack | Tue 25th January 2011 - 12:02 am

There’s a finely balanced stand-off in the Lords over the Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Bill. Many Labour peers feel they are just a few days of filibustering away from achieving, for them, a major political objective – forcing the government to change the date of the AV referendum – and, or perhaps instead, forcing major changes to the Bill, such as a change in the new rules for drawing up Parliamentary constituencies.

However they also face a major risk of the delaying tactics going wrong. Over-play their hand, annoy the cross-bench peers and spur the government into action and the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged ed miliband and Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill | 21 Comments

It’s almost as if Tim Farron reads this site…

By Mark Pack | Tue 18th January 2011 - 1:50 pm

No doubt this is at least in part coincidence, but compare my comments on what party emails should be more like with the latest from Tim Farron and you’d think someone has been reading this site…

As you read this email Labour peers are using every trick in the book to try and block a referendum on fairer votes.

In the Liberal Democrats we believe that the New Politics should be embraced by all parties. That is why I’m asking you to join me today in bringing pressure to bear on Ed Milliband and his Labour peers to live up to

…

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Posted in News and Online politics | Also tagged electoral reform and tim farron | 32 Comments

Electoral reform news: peers don’t like democracy, but Labour candidate who lost on vote transfers backs AV

By Mark Pack | Sat 15th January 2011 - 12:44 pm

From The Independent:

Clegg: peers are holding Government hostage…

In acrimonious clashes, they warned the Deputy Prime Minister that they would fight his proposals every step of the way…

The show-down – described by one participant as “Daniel in the lion’s den” – came at a meeting between Clegg and members of a cross-party group campaigning against the plans. More than 50 peers from all major parties were present, including the former Liberal leader Lord Steel of Aikwood.

Shock news there, that peers who are against elections are against plans to introduce elections – though the presence of David Steel is disappointing.

Meanwhile, the …

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Posted in News | Also tagged david steel, electoral reform, house of lords and parliamentary reform | 10 Comments

Another No2AV Labour MP turns out to be voting yes to fairer votes

By Mark Pack | Mon 10th January 2011 - 7:37 pm

Last week, Stephen highlighted the rather gaffe-prone No2AV campaign’s list of Labour MPs planning to vote No in May’s referendum on changing the voting system from first past the post to the alternative vote. It’s since turned out that five MPs were wrongly included in the list, with one – Barry Sherman – going as far as to say he was actually planning to go out and campaign for a Yes vote.

Today a second one of the supposed No supporters has turned out to also be campaigning for a Yes vote. This time it’s Albert Owen, MP for …

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Posted in News | Also tagged albert owen and electoral reform | 4 Comments

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