AV / FPTP

[emperor]

I must confess that both sides' campaign material about the AV referendum have been annoying me. They have tended to exaggerate their claims well beyond what might be considered reasonable, and I've seen a fair amount of why seems to be plain lying (e.g. the No camp's claim that we'll have to spend millions on electronic counting machines, or that no-where uses AV when our own MPs use it to elect leaders).

As a pleasing counterpoint to all this, I'd like to tip my hat to Dr Alan Renwick of the University of Reading. He's produced a nice report in the probable impact of AV, which seems clear and reasonably even-handed. There's a brief article on the BBC or his full briefing paper [PDF]. If you want to be more informed about the pros and cons of AV, then I recommend you read his article.

Personally, I'm more "No to FPTP" than "Yes to AV", but I see it as a step in the right direction, so will be voting for it.

Comments

[mirabehn.livejournal.com]

Personally, I'm more "No to FPTP" than "Yes to AV", but I see it as a step in the right direction, so will be voting for it.

Likewise. :-)

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

And me. I want proper PR. But AV is slightly better than FPTP and I think that if there is a No vote any discussion of proper PR will be off the table for ages as it will be taken as endorsing FPTP. Some people argue that if AV wins there will be no change for years, but my feeling is that it will be less long than if there is a no vote.

In 1997 some people in Wales voted no in the devolution referendum on the grounds it didn't go far enough. However, that referendum was won and now we're getting much more sensible powers. If that referendum had been lost we wouldn't now be in the position of having law-making powers we are now in.