Earlier this month, the HM Government passed the electoral reform bill. This contained a number of reforms, but the two main points are (1) Equalization of the sizes of constituencies, (2) a reduction int he overall number of MP's and (3) a referendum on a change in the voting system.

Our current voting system is called "First Past The Post" or FPTP, which is to say, you cast your vote, and the person with the most votes wins. It's relatively simple, and actually the vast majority of nations in the world employ it.

The proposed change to the voting system is to move to "AV" (Alternative vote, whereby you rank the candidates in order of preference, and, if nobody gets more than 50% of the vote, they eliminate the candidate in last position and distribute all the second preferences. Its a costly process (£250m to be precise), and makes (in my opinion) a mockery of the "one person, one vote" rule, because supporters of fringe parties will effect the outcome disproportionately.

the interesting thing is the polling. When you ask people "Should we change the voting system to AV" they wholeheartedly support it. When you ask the rather different question "AV is a system whereby [explain the system] - would you support a change to AV" - most people say no. This would indicate that while people support reform, they do NOT support the Alternative Vote as an option.

When you look into reasons for supporting reform, it also seems that people are confusing "political reform" (removing underlying corruption, creating a more honest and open process etc) with "Voting reform". The "Yes" camp seem to be selling the idea that Alternative Vote will eliminate corruption in politics. It Wont. and they are confusing people in order to weight people in favour of changing the system.

Anyway, for those who might be interested, the "no to AV" website can be found here

West