Say no to AV!
By Dominic Moffitt from Camden who is a 20 year old volunteer with No to AV campaign
We know how we feel when we come across someone who is fake. We prefer people to be straight forward and not treat us as fools. That’s why we should always be sceptical about what’s on offer from some politicians.
The worst example of this lately was at the general election last year. The Liberal Democrats campaigned against increases in student tuition fees in England and any increase in the tax we pay in the shops, VAT. As soon as they went into Government they abandoned their pledges. Student fees went up threefold and VAT was increased to 20%.
The Lib Dems said they had no choice because they were now in a Coalition government with the Conservatives. This is the type of politics we can expect more of if Britain switches to the Alternative Vote (AV). AV is a system designed to produce more hung Parliaments, more Coalition governments and more broken promises.
Although we have a Coalition government at the moment it is an oddity. Our current system for elections, First Past the Post, usually delivers decisive results. It is a very powerful tool in our democracy, because more often than not we, the people, have the power to kick a Government out and install a new one. We should not underestimate the importance of this. If we were to say Yes to the Alternative Vote in the referendum on 5th May we would be surrendering that power.
In an era of Coalitions the politicians would do their own deals after elections. They would have an excuse to abandon any pledge they had made to the voters just days before.
There are other problems with AV. It isn’t proportional representation and can actually deliver results far less proportional than now. It gives more power to people who vote for the BNP and other extremist and small parties; their supporters would get several bites of the cherry, transferring their votes as they wish, while people who back mainstream candidates would have just one say. And the whole system is based on a false belief voters wish to continually transfer preferences between a multitude of candidates.
FPTP is a simple fair a democratic system based on the principle of one person-one vote. AV takes that hard fought principle and twists it to become some people gaining extra votes at the expense of others.
Anyone aged 18 and over can vote in the referendum. If you want to preserve British democracy make sure you keep hold of the power you have; refuse to surrender it to politicians by voting No.
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Kathy Marshall
Why shouldn't small parties have more power? They don't exactly currently have much. And small party doesn't equal BNP.
Rachel Anderton
PR also means no vote is wasted, there is a low turnout rate to elections nowadays because people feel that if they want to vote for someone like the Green Party, their vote is wasted as they won't ever have a majority in power and so many won't turn up. PR means everyone's vote counts and will be more likely to increase voter turnouts.