A couple of days ago Mark Pack highlighted that the leader of the Taxpayers Alliance (not an organisation I have much time for as they claim to speak for me with no legitimacy at all), who is also heading up the anti AV group campaigning against a Yes vote in the referendum next year, has registered the yes2av.org domain name. This clearly is underhand and speaks volumes about the Taxpayers Alliance of the head honcho uses these sorts of tactics. It's hardly open and transparent is it.
Anyone who cares about the state of politics, you would imagine, would decry these tactics, no matter who does it. But not Tories it appears. Yesterday Dizzy Thinks sited examples of underhand Labour campaigning, as if it is some sort of justification for what the "No" campaign are doing.
Do dirty tricks justify dirty tricks ? I hope not.
Personally, I am genuinely unconvinced by AV, and wonder also whether a "NO" vote might cause some Lib Dem MPs to make it clear to Nick Clegg that they are not prepared to work with the Tories anymore. This then leaves Clegg with the dilemma whether hea joins the Tories with a handful of other Lib Dem MPs, or does the decent thing and goes in to opposition. However, when I read of dirty tricks by the "No" campaign, it makes me more inclined to be "Yes" and to campaign for it.
Showing posts with label electoral reform. Show all posts
Showing posts with label electoral reform. Show all posts
7/29/2010
Isn't the Tories criticism of Labour over voting reform just the slightest bit hypocritical ?
There are plenty of people in both the Labour and Conservative Parties who have long sought to label the lib Dems as political opportunists over the issue of voting reform because a more proportional system favours the Lib Dems. However, the ignore the fact that the Lib Dems are the only party who have ever stood on a platform, of "elect us as a majority and we'll introduce a voting system that will ever prevent us from having a majority government again", which if STV ever gets introduced, will be the result. However, we have seen in recent week s the very worst political expediency from members of both the Tory Party and Labour over the proposals to have a referendum on AV.
Now let's be quite clear here, the Liberal Democrats are not cleaner than clean when it comes to being politically expedient. the very nature of coalitions is to compromise, but in my opinion (and certainly any study of psephology will show this), AV is an inherently less proportional system than FPTP, so claims that AV is more proportional are not true. But this does not get the other parties off the hook.
Labour, who were committed to AV before the election, now say they will vote against the AV referendum bill because it also includes a call to reform the inequalities in constituency size. Now this current inequality favours Labour quite dramatically. So it is clear that Labour are voting to oppose a reform which will see their electoral advantage removed. In effect, the current electoral system gifts a number of bonus seats to Labour, effectively live a Formula One car being given a one lap head start. Nobody would in any way describe that as fair, but for Labour to so completely vote against one of their manifesto pledges (AV) because part of the same bill threatened their constituency advantage is the very worst kind of political posturing.
The actions of the Labour Party have been widely criticised by the Lib Dems and Tories, but it is the Tories that I really do have an issue with in their criticism of Labour.
The Tories want Labour's electoral advantage removed, claiming that they want a fairer distribution of constituency seats. However, if they are so keen on fairness, why not scrap plans for a referendum on AV and introduce a truly fair system of voting, which brings us back to the Single Transferable Vote (STV), the system the Lib Dems favoured in the first place ?
It is true that Labour want fairness, on their terms, and with s system that favours them. But the Tories too only want fairness for themselves, not for everyone. Whilst Nick Clegg may have been fooled in to believing the Tories are converts to reform, it remains clear to me that the Tories have not changed, and neither have Labour.
Now let's be quite clear here, the Liberal Democrats are not cleaner than clean when it comes to being politically expedient. the very nature of coalitions is to compromise, but in my opinion (and certainly any study of psephology will show this), AV is an inherently less proportional system than FPTP, so claims that AV is more proportional are not true. But this does not get the other parties off the hook.
Labour, who were committed to AV before the election, now say they will vote against the AV referendum bill because it also includes a call to reform the inequalities in constituency size. Now this current inequality favours Labour quite dramatically. So it is clear that Labour are voting to oppose a reform which will see their electoral advantage removed. In effect, the current electoral system gifts a number of bonus seats to Labour, effectively live a Formula One car being given a one lap head start. Nobody would in any way describe that as fair, but for Labour to so completely vote against one of their manifesto pledges (AV) because part of the same bill threatened their constituency advantage is the very worst kind of political posturing.
The actions of the Labour Party have been widely criticised by the Lib Dems and Tories, but it is the Tories that I really do have an issue with in their criticism of Labour.
The Tories want Labour's electoral advantage removed, claiming that they want a fairer distribution of constituency seats. However, if they are so keen on fairness, why not scrap plans for a referendum on AV and introduce a truly fair system of voting, which brings us back to the Single Transferable Vote (STV), the system the Lib Dems favoured in the first place ?
It is true that Labour want fairness, on their terms, and with s system that favours them. But the Tories too only want fairness for themselves, not for everyone. Whilst Nick Clegg may have been fooled in to believing the Tories are converts to reform, it remains clear to me that the Tories have not changed, and neither have Labour.
7/05/2010
The best time to hold a vote is on election day
A bunch of Tory MPs are complaining that the referendum on changing the voting system is to be held on the same day as the English local, Welsh and Scottish parliamentary elections.
What a bunch of losers these Tory MPs are.
At a time when the government is trying to keep costs down, are they really suggesting that the referendum be held on a different date, thus costing millions more to administer ?
The date makes sense on every level.
Update : I am pleased to see Iain Dale agrees too.
What a bunch of losers these Tory MPs are.
At a time when the government is trying to keep costs down, are they really suggesting that the referendum be held on a different date, thus costing millions more to administer ?
The date makes sense on every level.
Update : I am pleased to see Iain Dale agrees too.
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