An offer of AV

[ajva]

I think the LibDems should go for it. It's not PR, but it's a slight improvement, and a hell of a concession from the Tories. And what's more, if the LibDems turn it down, they'll be seen as putting their party interest first and possibly be punished for that later on.

What do you think?

Comments

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

I think a referendum's fair. If the populace don't want electoral reform, I don't think it should be forced on them. But there'd need to be a LOT of public consultation.

[lovingboth]

I am less democratic. Lots of changes get passed without a referendum. Where was the referendum on ending (nearly all) hereditary peers in the Lords, for example? Or introducing non-FPTP votes in Northern Ireland Euro elections decades ago and Euro elections for the rest more recently?

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

Indeed - similarly the choice to use PR systems for the London Assembly and Scottish Parliament. Or even things like changing the constituency boundaries.

(AV+ is also arguably much closer to what we have now than multiple member region systems - although I guess at the moment, it looks like any referendum will be for the latter, given that Lib Dems support STV.)

Having said that, I think that Labour offer a good deal - a bill for AV, and PR with a referendum.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

Labour do offer an excellent deal, but that's partly because they can't be certain of delivering it.

[djm4]

I think they can be pretty certain of not delivering it. It only takes a couple of other Labour MPs willing to follow Tom Harris (and there will be plenty), and it's dead.

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

The word “progressive” has now been redefined as “willing to barter away everything you campaigned for in return for the chance to be in government, albeit at the beck and call of a party that has spent its entire existence trying to wipe you off the political map”. Who knew?

LOL. OK, I officially love Tom Harris today. And frankly, his objections are good ones, though I disagree with his view that "this would happen every election under PR".

[friend-of-tofu.livejournal.com]

*shrug*

Up to you. But Euro elections are a different matter, and almost nobody in the country thought hereditary peerages were a good thing. I think it'd be extremely unpopular to introduce such sweeping constitutional reform without a referendum, and if it were done by a coalition government which hadn't even succeeded in an election, well, I suspect that'd look worryingly undemocratic, and could perpetuate the feeling of frustrated rage a hell of a lot of people already feel about the last Labour government.