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

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

It was indeed ciphergoth who first told me about Condorcet :) I'm reminded of Nick Clegg's talk to the Take Back Parliament protest, about how electoral systems used to be something that only academics discussed. I have this image of a flash mob of protesters chanting "Condorcet Now!"... But yes, I do agree that it's unlikely to ever be considered. (The last thing we want is vote splitting between different voting methods, so I can happily support AV tactically.)

(There are a few non-Government uses of Condorcet methods I don't know if you know - but yes, they all seem very geeky.)

there's no doubt the whole process is bloody fascinating

Yes, much more fun than a normal election :)

Regarding deals - seeing how things have turned out, I agree that a Labour coalition and their offer of PR didn't seem workable (it would be curious to know what the details were - so far I've just seen Dr Evan Harris tweeting that Labour were only offering their manifesto as the joint programme, and comments elsewhere that Labour MPs would oppose a deal). So I can see a coalition being a lesser evil to either a Tory minority Government on their own, or another election which risks a Tory majority.