Voting No to AV means No Change Ever to Voting System
The referendum this week isn’t really about whether we want the Alternative Vote system (AV). It’s actually about whether we ever want reform in our electoral and political system.
Many commentators and politicians say AV is a poor substitute for Proportional Representation, so people shouldn’t vote for AV. However that misses the entire point, if we don’t get AV, then we will never get Proportional Representation or any other decent reforms in our ‘old boy’ ‘fat cat’ ‘corrupt’ political system.
Voting for AV begins the slow process of reforming that politics in the UK desperately needs. Once AV has been implemented then other changes can more easily follow, as the two main parties will never offer the country real reform unless their power is limited first by AV.
All the so called reforms in the last few years have been piecemeal at best and more corrupt in many cases. MPs expenses and reform of the House of Lords are two excellent examples of supposed reform, which simply end up suiting MPs and/or the party in power.
Reform, after AV has been adopted, could take a number of different routes, not necessarily Proportional Representation, which is all a debate for later. Right now we have to seize the moment to take a chance in a generation (or two) to make a significant change, which will start a much needed upgrade to our political system.
