Message #402

[saundthorp]

I for one will be voting "No" to a change in the system of voting. It will be a disaster if we end up with AV. I would make a simliar comment that Churchill made with regard to democracy, the first past the post system may be an awful one, but it's better than all the others that have been tried.
The worst aspect of AV is that it dramatically reduces the chances of a single party winning outright a general election. The minute the election is over party manifestos will be ditched and quickly become meaningless
with parties scrambling for power in an unseemly bartering of policies. Over time there will be a procession of hung parliaments election after election.
The Lib Dems have only gone along with this referendum because they see it as a first step towards proportional representation. And why do the LIB Dems want PR? It is because they will NEVER get power under any other system. With PR this country would soon be like many other European countrie with their permanent coalition governments and the attendent political stagnation and corruption of which Italy is a prime example.