vote

nick clegg (doesn't he just look so happy being next to david cameron, they do make such a lovely couple) has delivered on the promise to propose to have a potential referendum about changing the first past the post voting system.
assuming that the members of parliament agree to it, the referendum will allow the public to decide if the tried and trusted first past the post system stays or if it gets replaced by the new shiny alternate vote system (voters rank the candidates in order of preference and if someone gets over 50% of first votes then they get elected, if there is no clear winner then the candidate is eliminated and second choices on their ballots get allocated across the remaining candidates and so it goes until someone emerges with over 50% of the vote. simple really).
as part of the ‘revolution in voting’ that is so close to the heart of nick clegg and the liberal democrats are the plans to change constituency sizes – to make them all about the same size and to reduce the number of members of parliament.
not that it matters what i think but reducing the number of mps seems to be a drastic move, especially as the justification of it seems to be make politics cheaper. really what we want isn’t cheaper politics we want politicians who don’t take the piss with their expenses. additionally, if we really thought about it, we would rather have more mps so that we have more chance to get to see our political representatives. more mps also mean more diversity in the houses of commons; well that is my theory anyway.
however this isn’t about that.
this is about voting.
the liberal democrats are keen on this the new av system because they feel it will make it so much fairer on the smaller parties (code for “make is so much fairer on the liberal democratic party”) to win seats in the houses of parliament.
not wanting to burst the liberal democrat’s bubble but their chances of ever getting elected to power disappeared up the swanee since they became part of the cod/dem coalition – so their chances have gone from no chance to no fucking way.
leaving that aside the members of parliament will be asked to vote on whether or not the av referendum goes ahead. they will vote yes or no.
and if it comes to the electorate we will have the choice between adopting the alternative vote system or staying with the current first past the post system (or majority vote).
mmm so let’s consider that for a moment. the first past the post system is not good enough for nick clegg and the liberal democrats but it is good enough a method to vote on whether or not we have an alternative system.
all very confusing.