Why I am voting Yes (by sarah)
Tomorrow is the referendum about the way we vote - I will be voting for change, voting for Alternative Voting or AV as it is known. Our current system is First Past the Post (FPTP).
Now AV is not the best system it has no proper weightings etc.. but the maths of the more advance systems is beyond a lot of people and if people don't understand they are not going to vote. As it is, lots of people seem to be struggling with this anyway.
The thing is I believe that AV is better than our current voting system because though it is called first past the post it isn't. No, it's not - we vote in constituencies which may not have representatives of all parties and people are voting in mind of which party is going to get one of their members in as Prime Minister. This is where the current system breaks down.
For a start you could have a situation when, say, in Labour seats the Liberal Democrats almost won and in the Conservative seats the Liberal Democrats almost won but though this means over all they or the Green Party or who ever is the thirds/fourth party they will never win. To me this is not first past the post - it's because we are technically only voting for our local MP so it shouldn't matter which party they are in. But it does.
If there were no parties as such this would be ok as the MP's would vote on what they, as individuals, thought was right and there would be no towing party lines even when they grate against the skin. Whether this would lead to a weak government or not is a thorny question.
What this means is that people go out and vote and say they really want to vote for that nice Labour Chap who also does things in that alliance thingy with another party but they won't because the Labour government was sinking and everyone felt it was time for a change and everyone knows that means you have to vote conservative, right?
That's the way it goes in this country; back and forth (of course in the old days it was Lib Dems and the Conservatives until Labour came up trumps).
Now, imagine the winners only had a small majority to get in and then they vote in their Prime Minister - well the result is one of compound error - you are rounding up and forgetting to take that into account before you more onto the next stage of the process. If our political system was a lab report the lecture would be demanding "Where are the error bars!". Of course it's not easy to have a Prime Minister who is only Prime Minister give or take 30%... but you get the idea.
First past the post secures a two party system in this country - something which the powers that be will not want to change (think about it) and I think this is shown most clearly in the leaflets that have found their way through the door.
They have all been "Vote No" ones and, though it says no tax payers money has been used to print them, I wonder who is paying for the time the MP's are spending on this? The objections on the leaflets made me roll my eyes - this like how much it will cost to explain it to people. Well you know most of that's already been done so that money is already spent.
Things like "only three other countries use AV". So something is new/unknown; that doesn't make it bad. Soap was seen as evil when it was first introduced into this country. People believed it washed the protective layer of grime off your hands so you'd get ill.
They say that Australia wants to get rid of it - but where are the studies to back the claim up? The leaflets treat the general public as idiots too - which unfortunately seems to be winning people over. I talk to people and they say they are voting No and just parrot what is on the leaflets. And we're stuck with people not wanting change; they just want tomorrow to be the same as today but with a bit more beer or chocolate please?
I had hoped that the internet and access to free information would alter this but of course we have an aging population so I may be waiting a while. Anyway I'm voting yes to AV because I believe that it is better than the system we've got - it will mean I get to vote more how I feel I should without panicking I'm wasting a vote. They say it will lead to more hung parliaments, but isn't that basically what we've just hand under FPTP anyway?
Wed 4th May 2011 9:21 pm 
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By Maurice Snell, Thu 5th May 2011 @ 6:54 am
I agree. AV, while not perfect, is much better than what we have now. Vote Yes!