This is something that's interested me quite a lot and I'd be interested to see what the educated minds of Bit-Tech have to say about it. As most Brits should know, we'll be having a referendum on switching to the Alternative Vote (Instant Run-Off) system for general elections on the 5th May. We've already presented both arguments on my own website (note this isn't just an excuse for extra traffic ) and there are still a huge amount of people who are undecided, don't care or don't understand the proposals. The following should be sufficient extra reading if you're still to decide: For http://www.the-reading-list.co.uk/?p=409 http://www.yestofairervotes.org/content/ [campaign website] http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/article.php?id=55 [not impartial but useful] Against http://www.the-reading-list.co.uk/?p=365 http://www.no2av.org/ [campaign website] System explained Discuss!
So does that mean the people who has to vote have to in some way make a top 3 of votes and that if their first place vote is the smallest party, automatically their second place vote goes in to action (maybe not the right word to use)
I am SO against AV it is ridiculous. I very much intend to protest the hell out of it, as its just a way of the Lib Dems getting power they don't deserve, and getting complete racist morons from the BNP in parliament. Mark my words, AV will be bad for this country.
Stop putting electoral reforms in the context of current politics. Also, power that the Lib Dems don' deserve? Despite them getting over 20% of the votes cast but only ~10% of the seats in parliament? The fact of the matter is that I personally can only really vote two ways under the current system for the conservatives (who hold a pretty safe seat) or against them. It makes very little difference as to who I vote for if I don't vote conservatives as once my consituencies candidate is chosen, none of the other votes are considered. This isn't even fixed under AV but at least it means that if there was a majority of people who deliberately didn't want the conservatives to be elected this would be more reflected in the votes. I'm using my consituency as an example here but it applies almost everywhere in the country.
Completely wrong in both cases. The Lib Dems have consistently received a much lower proportion of seats in relation to the amount of votes they've accumulated; if you read my article it makes a point of the most extreme case in 1983. Secondly, it's understood that under AV 'extreme' parties are no better off than they were before, and that it in fact further restricts the BNP and similar parties from ever having a chance of getting elected. Edit: quote from AV literature that better sums up the effect on extremest parties
Say what you want on the subject, Im sticking by my guns. People didn't spend hundreds of years to get the right of one man one vote simply to have it swapped one day. This is one of the few issues I won't be persuaded on.
We don't have one man one vote, or rather we do but currently not all votes are equal. stuck in a strong Labour area but want to vote for some other party? don't bother you vote means nothing. Although its normally Labour that benefit from the current voting system. The newly proposed system is not perfect, but its still better than the current. truly if the total of the voting is the tory's is 42% Labour 38% and lib deb 20% the shouldn't tory's have 42% of the seats Labour 38%. If one man one vote is supposed to really be one man one vote that is.
Will be voting NO. For one, all the public have done since the general election is moan about the election result. And with AV, a hung parliament and coalition agreements will be more frequent (than FPTP). So I don't think the public want AV (and indeed, polling data after people understand what AV is has confirmed this many times). And I know the public is hypocritical, but nonetheless I think that the public doesn't want AV overall, hence I (perhaps weirdly) take that as a factor into voting no. For another reason, it's not proportional. It's a bit of a mess of an electoral system. I'd vote for proportional representation since I think that's a fair voting system, even if it'd lead to the more extreme parties possibly getting some MPs. But AV? Nah.
I am not that much into politics, i do keep an eye on the UK since I am trying to move over there, up until now it was -and correct me if I am wrong- either one or the other. I think with the new voting system it still remains the same. Cause in the end the minority party's will disappear and one or the other is left. I come from the Netherlands and no I am not saying we are doing so good, but what we have seen in the latest election was that people voted for change in a big way. but here each party gets a number of seats. and each party is either left or right so again one or the other and some are playing both sides. It will be a slide improvement but i think in the end the difference won't be so big as with what it is now...
I'm yet to be convinced by AV, PR would seem to be the fairest system but half assed jobs does seem to be the British way of late.
Amen. Look at other countries with AV - it's always a coalition in power, and with the UK's three party system, that means that we're pretty much always going to have Lib Dems in the driving seat as the electorate flip-flops between Labour and Conservative, as the LDs make up that bunch of seats needed to form a government. Plus, coalitions fall apart with regularity. It's simply not stable government.
I'm voting for it, anything that makes political parties having to work harder for out votes is a good thing. Fewer 'safe' seats will improve politics in this country and god-forbid result in policies closer to the general public's point of view.
This is the issue I have. FPTP does have problems and perhaps we could do with replacing it with a different voting system but AV is not the answer. It has just as many issues if not more and the choice essentially boils down to replacing one flawed system with another equally flawed system. If they are really serious about reforming the voting system they need to do a lot better than AV which won't solve anything and if anything will just raise new problems.
I haven't looked into both electoral systems that closely, but Alternative Vote just doesn't strike me as a more 'fair' system and a way to make all votes count. I will vote No.
It's slightly depressing to me that so many people seem so opposed to electoral reform which has been far too long coming in this country. First past the post may be simple and relatively easy to carry out logistically compared with more complex voting methods, but it's far worse for a nation's democracy imo. We've had effectively a two party system for pretty much the last century, if not, much more. Can anyone seriously believe that the entire range of political beliefs found in the UK can be legitimately summed up by one of two choices? FPTP lets the business of politics get in the way of democracy. I'm for anything that gets rid of it, even if I would only consider AV to be a moderately satisfactory solution.
