AV Referendum

As the campaigns have begun and the polling cards have been sent out, I thought it was time for a thread on the AV referendum (that's a horrible word).

So, which side are you on? What do you think of our current voting system?
Etc, etc.

So nobody cares about AV then?

About sums it up.

I'm sort of of the opinion that I don't really know if it's worth it, plus I'm scared that it will make Parliament more likely to lead to more coalition governments which scares me slightly as in countries where that happens voter satisfaction and the feeling of democracy is taken away from the electorate and put into the hands of men in suits in parliamentary back rooms.

At the same time I like, in theory at least, the idea of the parliament being more proportional and the idea of taking away the need for tactical voting.

IE in my home town it was Staunchly Lib Dem with the Tories a wee bit behind and then Labour where so far behind they weren't anywhere near being in contention. Meant that if I were voting there last year I would have had the choice of either voting Labour (who I support) and the vote being wasted or voting Lib Dems just to keep the Tories out (And I am very aware of the subsequent Irony!), under AV I would be able to still vote Labour but manage to vote Lib Dem as my second choice so at least my vote would count.

They've used various proportional systems for the Scottish parliament and it works but is far more proportional than simple AV would have.

All in all I haven't yet decided which way I'm going to vote. Bit annoying that the vote here is on the same day as the Scottish election as it means no-one here is really talking about it, all the Scottish politics programmes and Scots newspapers are talking about Holyrood not about AV.

Did enjoy the debate between Robert Winston and Eddie Izzard on the Andrew Marr show yesterday morning though.

I think that the type of voting system is important. AV is a good first step to change how voters see the elections we get. Existing major parties have seriously let voters down.

That's a good point, I think that the more likelihood there is of a coalition government happening more than once, the more it might persuade the existing parties to redevelop themselves and improve a bit. Plus it may be slightly more representative, but then I have some reservations about that.

I'm on the fence with it at the moment.

It won't make a blind bit of difference in my constituency so whichever way the av referendum goes nothing will change here.

I live in the constituency that had the infamous duck pond MP in the expenses scandal. Peter Viggers had been MP for Gosport since 1970 and found himself ousted before the election because of the scandal. Labour and the Lib Dems suddenly stuck to Gosport like s*** on an army blanket thinking there was a golden opportunity to take a previously rock solid Tory seat. Not a chance. The new tory candidate actually increased the majority previously held by Viggers!!

Would av have made a difference here? No. And that is how it would be in a lot of places. It may cause a few marginals here and there to elect the bloke who comes in third which to my way of thinking is a travesty of democracy.

There are a lot of faults in the first past the post system but we all know it, we all understand it and with a few exceptions it has usually given us a government with a pretty clear majority.

Have they?

Maybe the Lib Dems have but I think both Labour and Tory supporters would be fairly happy with their respective parties.