May 4th, 2011
AV Referendum: Reasons to Vote
By Cian O'Donovan
Last week a 38 Degrees member summarised the positive arguments made by each side in the AV referendum. The blog and Facebook post unleashed an avalanche of debate and presented more reasons for and against the proposed change. These have been incorporated into the updated table.
| YES Reform voting system to “Alternative vote”. |
NO Stick with “First Past The Post” voting system. |
| Rank candidates in order of preference: 1, 2, 3 |
Put a cross by chosen candidate: X |
| Currently used in the UK: By political parties to elect their leader. By MPs to elect their Speaker and committee members. |
Currently used in the UK: To elect MPs to Westminster parliament. |
| Supported by: Most of the Labour Party, Lib Dems, Greens, UKIP, a few Conservatives. |
Supported by: Almost all Conservatives, the BNP, some of Labour. |
Leading arguments:
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Leading arguments:
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Do you agree? Are there any big issues missing? Add a comment below.
You might find these articles by the BBC helpful. Or you could have a look at what the yes and no campaigns for the referendum have to say.
Here’s what a few 38 Degrees members have said about the referendum:
Stuart is voting Yes: “Government of the people, by the people, for the people requires the involvement of the people and the conviction of the people that their involvement counts, whoever they support. AV is a small step in the right direction in bringing power out of the boardrooms and down to our level. It isn’t the whole journey, but it is a first step.”
Cathy is voting No: “Either go whole hog proportional, or keep it as it is rather than spending resources on a system that is pretty much as good as, if not only marginally better or worse than, the status quo.”
Lauren is voting Yes: “If George Osborne, the BNP, the Murdoch Empire, and David Blunkett all want me to vote no to AV, then I’m going to vote yes!”
Joe is voting No: “AV isn’t really any more democratic though. In a way it’s worse because in many cases some votes are worth more than others because you’re mixing first preference votes with second preference votes.”
Grant is voting Yes: “Living in Scotland I have found AV/STV to be an opportunity to change our voting system for the better so we are not stuck with same old parties winning the vote.”
Jon is voting No: “I should be a supporter of AV because I support UKIP / English Democrats or ANY civilised bunch who will get us out of Europe. BUT it’s no good getting us out of Europe if we are left with a bunch of ‘all things to all men’ apparachnikim at home.”
It could be decades before we get another chance to vote on reforming the voting system, particularly if there is a No vote. So let’s make sure everyone has a chance to have their say!
Please send this blog post to your friends and remind them to vote.
If you use Facebook, you can post a status reminder here. If you use Twitter, you can tweet a reminder here.
