Yes to Fairer Votes, the group being created to campaign for a yes vote in the electoral reform referendum, has unveiled its steering committee:
Pam Giddy, Chair
John Sharkey, Vice Chair (and former chair of the Liberal Democrat general election campaign)
Neal Lawson, Compass
Peter Facey, Unlock Democracy
Willie Sullivan, Electoral Reform Society
Carina Trimingham, Electoral Reform Society
The initial version of the campaign website is also up and running at www.yestofairervotes.org – and you can sign up to support the campaign and offer your help.
12 Comments
The Dartford and North Kent area has a meeting to start organising the campaign this coming Tuesday in the Welsh Tavern pub, London Road, DA2 6BJ at 19:30. We’d love for anyone interested to come along and say hi.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=146980272008855
http://www.takebackparliament.com/page/event/detail/takebackparliament/wrb5
Myself and the local Lib Dem candidate James Willis will be there, and hopefully a good set of other people too!
OK. I am very pro the yes to fairer votes campaign, but if they don’t change their website to let you sign up without being forced to spam your long suffering friends and family then this campaign is going to die before it has begun. That is a truly TERRIBLE piece of website design :/
Unless there is a “skip” button which I have missed, in which case it is merely bad website design, because I have spent a long time looking!
Predictably, I found a way to skip the email page just after posting, but it is far from intuitive. You have to click on the words “your role” under the number three in the top right hand corner. That needs making easier to use.
I used the website. Had no problems with it whatsoever (and thought it covered more than the No website).
Presumably we wish to win this referendum rather than simply to lose it honourably, and it is somewhat dismaying that not one of the members of this steering committee, to put it bluntly, is a person of whom the general public has ever heard.
@hugh p
The steering committee’s job is oversee the running of the campaign, and it consists of representatives of the pressure groups which have been campaigning hard for voting reform over the last couple of years — the Electoral Reform Society, Unlock Democracy, Power2010, Vote for a Change, and Take Back Parliament.
Famous names will of course be endorsing and promoting a switch to the alternative vote, but there’s no need for them to be on the steering group.
I am not sure that any of these people know much about campaigning (as opposed to sitting in a pressure group and pontificating to the small minority of politically minded people). And Sharkey – who as I understand it is a PR man not a campaigner – has just had one failure as a campaign “chair”.
Not a good start.
Tony Greaves
Thanks Ellie – your suggestion worked for me.
Also, if you read the terms of the site it suggests “5. Data about another person – If you provide us with information about another person, you must first tell them that you will be passing their information to us and the purposes for which their information may be used (as set out in paragraph 3). You must ensure that they consent to us storing and using their personal information.”
I guess that includes a friend’s email address?
Having just completed the “your role” page, I am not very impressed with that either 🙁 The questions are rather bald and the list of Trade Unions is very incomplete, but doesn’t have “Other” as a choice!
@Ellie @Jon Rogers
I’ve passed on your comments to the relevant people.
Neal Lawson?
As a Labour Party member and a supporter of electoral reform I may now conclude that this just isn’t serious.
That website is so bad it’s almost funny.
“we need to know what your willing to do to help out.” Hellfire ….
Poor navigation
An invalid “privacy” policy.
Spelling mistakes.
Good luck getting that website to persuade anyone to vote yes. It appears to be a marketing operation rather than a political one