Alternative Vote Referendum...

[Chil1234]

Supposed to be coming up in May 2011. A referendum on whether we'd all like the 'alternative voting' system where we rank candidates in order of preference, probably coupled with changes to boundaries, equalising constiuents represented.

Is electoral reform the burning issue the LDs claim it to be? Is this long overdue in a mature democracy? What are the pros and cons? Have you made your mind up already or are you willing to be swayed for or against?

anything that allows everyone's vote to really count is a good thing. This is only the first step in allowing us to have a true democracy. AV is watered down and not ideal but good on the LibDems for at least managing to give us this choice.

AV is OK though I doubt anyone will be any happier with close results. I will vote for FPTP but don't mind AV that much.

Full list PR - no way. Transfers so much power to parties. And the STV multi-constituencies are just too big. My favourite part of Commons debate is maiden speeches, where new MPs give lovely accounts of the history and geography of their constituency. It makes you realise just how important the constituency link is.

As for the politics, the coalition changes everything. If Tories give their second preferences to Lib Dems and vice versa, it seems that Labour are in serious danger of being irrelevant for a very long time. If there had been a Lib/Lab pact in a rainbow coalition isntead, then AV would have resulted in the Tories being unelectable for a generation.

I just get the feeling that this is not what everyone is concerned about at the moment. There was a flurry of small scale 'we want PR' protests around the time of the election but it fizzled out very quickly. Even the reaction on this message board is pretty quiet. If it's true that they're going to hold the referendum on the same day as local council elections then that might improve the turnout but if it was a standalone vote I think it would be a washout. Both Tory and Labour voters have the most to lose if PR was introduced.. and that's quite a big section of the electorate.

I think that Tory and Labour politicians have the most to lose by PR, not Tory and Labour voters. The people are right behind PR, they are sick to death of the lying politicians who they constantly say are all the same. The people want to shake the cosy system up and introduce new faces and new parties. That's why the cosy club hope that the PR debate goes quiet. The majority of the people never go on protests, but that doesn't mean that they don't want change.

I think most voting system geeks on here are waiting to see what we're offered - I know I am.

PR is still a big issue for a lot of people (or at least it is on FB).

"(or at least it is on FB)"

Parents of injured babies 'lying' about fox attacks was another big issue on FB. I don't think that's any measure of public opinion, to be honest.

I'll admit I have a disproportionately large number of political activists on my FB! Ahhhhh university....

And strangely a lot of them seem to now be leading lights of Liberal Youth so perhaps it's not suprising that I see electoral reform related status updates, notes or links quite a lot.

Anyway, from where I'm standing it was and continues to be a big issue. Fox attacks, on the other hand, didn't register on my newsfeed

AV will let people vote for the politician that they really want, rather than just the person they think is most likely to get in.

At the moment even if you dont really want one of the leading candidates, you have to vote for them anyway otherwise you might as well put your vote in the bin.

This system gives too much power to the media as they can make it look like certain candidates are leading.

AV means you can vote for the person you actually want. If many people also want them, your vote counts! If not many people want them, then your second choice still counts.

It means that the people representing us will have been chosen by at least 50% of the people they represent.