Tag Archives: electoral reform

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

…

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 …

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

…

Posted in News and Online politics | Also tagged av referendum 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 …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, david steel, 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 …

Posted in News | Also tagged albert owen and av referendum | 4 Comments

The Independent calls for a ‘Yes’ vote in voting reform referendum

By Mark Pack | Sun 9th January 2011 - 11:33 am

From today’s Independent on Sunday:

To try to calculate the case for different voting systems by party advantage (or disadvantage) is not only wrong, it is also a mistake. Although we can guess how past elections might have turned out under AV, based on opinion-poll evidence of voters’ second preferences (as we report today, there might have been a hung parliament in 1992 and a Lib-Lab deal might have been more possible last year), people would behave differently under a different system.

Now it is time, therefore, to consider the philosophical or pure case for the alternative vote. In this, we

…

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum | 13 Comments

The Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign asks: Where does your MP stand on the Alternative Vote?

By Stephen Tall | Fri 7th January 2011 - 2:28 pm

Earlier this week, Lib Dem Voice highlighted the No2AV campaign’s embarrassing failure to check whether all the Labour MPs they said were opposed to reforming the UK’s unfair electoral system actually are opposed. It turns out that five of the 114 named were listed wrongly.

As a result of the No camp’s confusion, the Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign is asking the public to help make sure all MPs come clean about which side of the debate they support:

What really matters in this referendum is what the people want, not politicians. But since they are meant to represent us,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged alternative vote and featured | 10 Comments

The Independent View: The UK voting system is broken

By Nick Pearce | Tue 4th January 2011 - 6:04 pm

One of the key arguments made by defenders of First Past the Post is that it produces clear outcomes on which strong and stable government is based. New analysis published today by the ippr (Worst of Both worlds: Why First Past the Post no longer works) shows why this claim no longer stacks up. It shows that the last general election result was not an aberration but a reflection of long-term changes in voting patterns across the UK which significantly increase the likelihood of more hung parliaments in the future.

Britain has evolved into a multi-party system, but it still has an electoral …

Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged av referendum and ippr | 7 Comments

The Labour and Conservative MPs who were in favour of AV before they were against it

By Mark Pack | Fri 31st December 2010 - 10:25 am

Here’s a curious detail about the voting record of MPs on the alternative vote: before the general election, the House of Commons agreed to introduce elections for select committee chairs using the alternative vote (and the first set of these such elections have now been held).

Most of the Conservative and Labour MPs who have said they oppose AV for public elections were also MPs when this decision was taken – and not one of them forced a vote on the matter, let alone vote against introducing AV. Instead, they all let the introduction of AV go through.

Now of course …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged av referendum | 54 Comments

The 100-plus Labour MPs publicly opposing electoral reform

By Stephen Tall | Thu 30th December 2010 - 7:45 pm

Poor Ed Miliband. In his first speech to the Labour party conference he tried his valiant best to show that Labour had changed, that it was a party which could re-claim the progressive liberalism it so happily junked in the Blair/Brown years.

No more ID cards, detention without trial, control orders etc — so said Ed. And yes to electoral reform in the shape of the alternative vote — so said Ed.

Unfortunately for Ed, not many of his MPs are listening to him. Today, the No2AV campaign proudly announced that over 100 of Labour’s 257 MPs would be opposing …

Posted in News | Also tagged alternative vote, av referendum, ed miliband and labour party | 57 Comments

How often do people write about proportional representation?

By Mark Pack | Mon 20th December 2010 - 8:55 am

This graph from Google shows how frequently “proportional representation” was mentioned in the vast Google Books archive. As you can see, the proportion of books which mentioned PR grew sharply in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, reaching a peak in the inter-war years (when a minority Labour Government got an alternative vote bill through the Commons but it then stalled in the Lords and was abandoned when the government fell):

Posted in News | 3 Comments

Fairer votes referendum: it needs to be about the voting system, not the government

By Mark Pack | Thu 9th December 2010 - 12:54 pm

Contrasting poll results from YouGov and ICM on the AV referendum show how important it is avoid the referendum becoming a vote for or against the government rather than about the merits of the alternative vote compared to first past the post.

An ICM poll has found the Yes camp leading by 35% – 22% (with the balance don’t know or wouldn’t vote), which compares to a 35% – 41% deficit on the latest YouGov poll.

However, there is an important difference between the wording of the two polling questions, with YouGov’s question starting, “The Conservative-Liberal Democrat government are committed …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum, ed miliband, featured, icm and yougov | 24 Comments

50 phonebanks to give massive boost to grassroots Yes to Fairer Votes campaign

By Mark Pack | Wed 1st December 2010 - 12:26 pm

On Saturday 50 phonebanks are opening in cities across the country as the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign launches the most ambitious voter contact programme in British political history.

The total capacity of the 50 phonebanks is set to exceed that of even the Conservative and Labour Party national phonebanks at their peaks, with volunteers phoning voters to persuade them to back a fairer voting system in next May’s referendum.

A telephone In addition to the phonebanks, a virtual phonebank will be launched in the new year letting …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum | 12 Comments

Dear John Reid…

By Mark Pack | Fri 26th November 2010 - 5:02 pm

Dear John Reid,

Is the electoral system you decry as being “unfair” in today’s Telegraph by any chance the same voting system as the one that Labour uses to election its own party leader?

I only ask because they are both called the Alternative Vote and I haven’t noticed you complaining about Ed Miliband’s election as leader being unfair or therefore calling for your colleagues to oust him.

By the way, a little tip about Fiji, which I notice you and colleagues have become keen on quoting. It’s a military dictatorship and, you know, if you go round citing its dislike of the …

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum and john reid | 75 Comments

Why Ralph is voting Yes to fairer votes

By Mark Pack | Sat 20th November 2010 - 8:54 am

From the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign:

Over the coming months, the nation will be asking: how will you vote on 5 May?

Ralph Hill, 86, knows how he’ll be voting – Yes.

Ralph fought for democracy in World War II – and he wants to make ours better this May.

Watch him explain why:

Posted in News | Also tagged av referendum | 21 Comments

Chris Rennard writes… The battle for electoral reform in the Lords

By Chris Rennard | Thu 18th November 2010 - 7:05 pm

Battle has been joined in the House of Lords over the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (generally referred to as the PVSC Bill). Having passed all stages in the Commons, it came to the Lords this week. It needs to get to Royal Assent by the end of January for the referendum on using the Alternative Vote for future Westminster elections to be held on May 5th next year.

Two controversial measures have been put together in one Bill as part of the coalition agreement. The Government won every vote in the Commons on this Bill with comfortable majorities. But Labour’s …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged av referendum, Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill and paul tyler | 12 Comments

Do you remember how Labour’s London campaign collapsed into chaos and confusion in 1998?

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th November 2010 - 10:05 pm

No, I don’t either. Which leaves me puzzled.

Because, you see, Labour MP and campaign coordinator Andy Burham has said that his party would not be working much for a Yes vote in the AV referendum as,

It would be a recipe for chaos and confusion if Labour candidates were also supporting AV in their literature.

Odd then that it wasn’t a recipe for chaos and confusion in London in 1998 when there was a referendum on the same day as other elections. And I’m sure that the fact that the 1998 referendum was introduced by a Labour government whilst the 2011 one …

Posted in News | Also tagged andy burnham, av referendum and will straw | 25 Comments

Police Commissioners set to be elected by preferential voting

By Mark Pack | Sat 16th October 2010 - 10:35 am

A detail from the government’s current consultation on introducing elected police commissioners:

Commissioners will have a set four yearterm of office and term limits of two terms. The Government intends to apply the existing framework for the conduct of local government andParliamentary elections including the recognised eligibility criteria for standing for public office, in preparing for the first set of elections in May 2012. We are considering the appropriate voting system, and believe that a preferential voting system is the right option. (Source: section 2.12 in Policing in the 21st Century: Reconnecting police and the people)

I very much doubt whether this choice …

Posted in News | Also tagged elected police commissioners and policing | 1 Comment

Dear David Davis…

By Mark Pack | Wed 29th September 2010 - 1:05 pm

Dear David Davis,

You have me confused.

In your speech today you warn against “the destruction of a 200-year-old constitution” and give this as a reason to oppose AV.

But aside from our voting system, there is another part of that 200 year old constitution that is also currently up for change before Parliament.

200 years ago the size of Parliamentary constituencies varied hugely. Much more than 5% or 10% and not simply on islands or in the Highlands. Massive variations were built into the system, specially to protect particular vested interests.

So if you are wanting to protect our 200 year old constitution, I …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david davis and featured | 16 Comments

Jo Swinson invites Lib Dems to join campaign for fairer voting system

By The Voice | Sat 18th September 2010 - 1:15 pm

An email to Lib Dem members, signed by Jo Swinson, is promoting the Lib Dem rally taking place on Saturday evening, with some high-profile guest speakers, as the party gears up for next May’s referendum:

On Saturday, join Nick Clegg, Art Malik, Martin Bell, some surprise special guests and myself as we launch our campaign for a fairer voting system.

As you know , Nick Clegg is leading the fight in Parliament to secure the United Kingdom its first ever referendum on electoral reform.

Fighting for fairer votes will be one of the top priorities for the Liberal Democrats this coming year –

…

Posted in Conference | Also tagged #ldconf and Jo Swinson | Leave a comment

Political Reform: the dragons’ den

By Dinti Batstone | Sat 11th September 2010 - 1:07 pm

Come and pitch your idea for political reform to our “dragons’ den” style panelists, Lynne Featherstone MP, Baroness Ros Scott and Alice Delemare (Electoral Reform Society), moderated by Katie Razzall from Channel 4 News.

This fringe event is at 1-2pm on Wednesday, 22nd September at ACC Liverpool , Hall 11C.

In the coming year we have a once in a generation opportunity to change politics for good: getting rid of the first past the post system and reforming the House of Lords. With Nick Clegg in charge of political reform, Liberal Democrats have a unique opportunity to shape the reform …

Posted in Conference | 1 Comment

Opinion: our MPs need to be demonstrating consensual politics and challenging opponents on AV

By Chris Jenkinson | Thu 9th September 2010 - 1:15 pm

Based on my timeline on Twitter I was not the only Lib Dem member paying attention to the AV debate in Parliament and getting frustrated at some of the comments made by Labour and Conservative MPs against the alternative vote referendum. I can’t have been alone in noticing a significant absence of Lib Dem MPs being as engaged in the debate in Parliament as I was on Twitter.

This got me thinking – are we doing our best to minimise unforced errors and build relationships with those we will be campaigning alongside in the AV referendum and to limit Yes …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged av referendum | 10 Comments

Guardian verdict on voting reform: “Mr Clegg spoke for progress; Mr Straw for reaction.”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 7th September 2010 - 10:15 am

The Guardian has not always been kind to the Coalition since its formation; still less to the Lib Dems. But its stinging rebuke to Labour’s “opposition for opposition’s sake” — with its attempt last night cynically to torpedo the Lib/Con government’s electoral reform measures — might perhaps give the new party leader pause for thought.

In the topsy-turvy world of Coalition politics, two parties which do not support the alternative vote last night voted to endorse a referendum on it; while the party which pledged to introduce it in its manifesto decided to jettison that promise.

It was an irony …

Posted in News | Also tagged alastair campbell, alternative vote, jack straw, nick clegg and the guardian | 17 Comments

Clegg on AV referendum bill: “We must make the system fair. We must put people back in charge.”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 7th September 2010 - 9:28 am

The BBC reports:

Plans to change the way MPs are elected have cleared the first Commons hurdle. A bill introducing a referendum on changing the voting system, changes to constituency boundaries and fewer MPs, was backed by 328 votes to 269.

Labour says the changes would affect Labour-supporting areas and said the bill was “political skulduggery”. Tory opponents of the referendum said it could cost £100m but deputy PM Nick Clegg said it would restore “people’s faith in the way they elect their MPs”.

Despite criticism, the bill passed with a majority of 59 and a Labour bid to kill it off

…

Posted in News and Parliament | Also tagged alternative vote, house of commons and nick clegg | 21 Comments

LDV survey: 96% of Lib Dem members back AV – but majority with “no real enthusiasm”

By Stephen Tall | Tue 31st August 2010 - 7:45 am

Lib Dem Voice has polled our members-only forum to discover what Lib Dem members think of a variety of key issues, and what you make of the Lib Dems’ and Government’s performance to date. Almost 600 party members have responded, and we’re currently publishing the full results of our survey.

Today we’re looking at the Alternative Vote, the measure of electoral reform the Conservatives conceded in their ‘final offer‘ to the Lib Dems to secure the Coalition agreement. A preferential system of voting (in which the public can, if they choose, rank the candidates in order), AV is not …

Posted in LDV Members poll | Also tagged alternative vote and nick clegg | 15 Comments

“The Liberal Democrats aren’t a sort of glorified form of the Electoral Reform Society”

By Mark Pack | Fri 20th August 2010 - 3:21 pm

So says Nick Clegg in an interview for Radio 4’s Westminster Hour.

His underlying point is a good one – the coalition isn’t a single-issue coalition which is about AV and nothing else. And, as James Graham points out, the Electoral Reform Society isn’t a sort of glorified from of the Liberal Democrats either.

However, Nick Clegg does make the point at some length in the interview – “The Liberal Democrats aren’t a sort of glorified form of the Electoral Reform Society”, “I wouldn’t have stood for the leadership of the Lib Dems if I thought the only sole purpose in …

Posted in News | Also tagged electoral reform society, james graham, nick clegg and westminster hour | 36 Comments

Alternative Vote or Venetian Vote?

By Mark Pack | Thu 19th August 2010 - 10:20 am

Pah, who needs the Alternative Vote when you can go for the Venetian electoral system, as explained by The New Yorker:

Whenever the time came to elect a new doge of Venice, an official went to pray in St. Mark’s Basilica, grabbed the first boy he could find in the piazza, and took him back to the ducal palace. The boy’s job was to draw lots to choose an electoral college from the members of Venice’s grand families , which was the first step in a performance that has been called tortuous, ridiculous, and profound. Here is how it went,

…

Posted in News | Also tagged venice | 5 Comments

If you don’t like a system that can produce coalitions, how would you change it?

By Iain Roberts | Wed 18th August 2010 - 5:28 pm

We have a well understood way of electing MPs and forming governments for UK-wide elections. Not that you’d know it from the comments of some, particularly those opposed to the coalition.

Here’s how it works. We elect MPs by first past the post. Those MPs then decide who forms a government. If a Prime Minister can get the support of a majority of MPs, he or she can form a government. If the PM loses that support, the government will normally fall.

That system has produced some odd results over the years (as do all systems, depending …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged coalition | 18 Comments

LibLink: Nick Clegg – My vision for a new political map and voting system

By NewsHound | Tue 17th August 2010 - 7:45 pm

Acting Prime Minister… are we allowed to call him that? No, okay then: Holding the Fort Prime Minister Nick Clegg has an article in today’s London Evening Standard setting out how he thinks the way in which people vote can be improved by the next general election, in 2015.

He looks at three issues. First, Nick notes the current unfairness that unequal constituency sizes mean that the votes of 87,000 voters in the East Ham constituency are worth less than the 66,000 voters living 10 miles away in Islington North: “So, if you live in Islington, your voice counts for more.” …

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged alternative vote, electoral registration, evening standard, local government boundary commission and nick clegg | 34 Comments

Opinion: unnatural constituency boundaries – the hidden menace

By David Allen | Sun 15th August 2010 - 4:20 pm

The big electoral reform next year – or so everyone thinks – will be the referendum on AV. Alongside it, there will be a boring technical change to equalise constituency sizes and get rid of the present bias towards Labour. Most people assume that we won’t need to worry much about the constituency size changes.

Massive mistake! The change from natural to unnatural constituency boundaries, and rigidly fixed constituency sizes, will have profound and far-reaching ill effects. It will largely destroy the effective link between a local constituency and its individual MP. It could also threaten …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged local government boundary commission | 50 Comments

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Tag Archives: electoral reform

Deal struck in Lords over Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

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

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

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

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

The Independent calls for a ‘Yes’ vote in voting reform referendum

The Yes! to Fairer Votes campaign asks: Where does your MP stand on the Alternative Vote?

The Independent View: The UK voting system is broken

The Labour and Conservative MPs who were in favour of AV before they were against it

The 100-plus Labour MPs publicly opposing electoral reform

How often do people write about proportional representation?

Fairer votes referendum: it needs to be about the voting system, not the government

50 phonebanks to give massive boost to grassroots Yes to Fairer Votes campaign

Dear John Reid…

Why Ralph is voting Yes to fairer votes

Chris Rennard writes… The battle for electoral reform in the Lords

Do you remember how Labour’s London campaign collapsed into chaos and confusion in 1998?

Police Commissioners set to be elected by preferential voting

Dear David Davis…

Jo Swinson invites Lib Dems to join campaign for fairer voting system

Political Reform: the dragons’ den

Opinion: our MPs need to be demonstrating consensual politics and challenging opponents on AV

Guardian verdict on voting reform: “Mr Clegg spoke for progress; Mr Straw for reaction.”

Clegg on AV referendum bill: “We must make the system fair. We must put people back in charge.”

LDV survey: 96% of Lib Dem members back AV – but majority with “no real enthusiasm”

“The Liberal Democrats aren’t a sort of glorified form of the Electoral Reform Society”

Alternative Vote or Venetian Vote?

If you don’t like a system that can produce coalitions, how would you change it?

LibLink: Nick Clegg – My vision for a new political map and voting system

Opinion: unnatural constituency boundaries – the hidden menace

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Josh Babarinde writes…The Lib Dem Summer of Strategy

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What’s going on with party strategy?

A strange but welcome feeling

Tag Archives: electoral reform

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