sinister agent wrote:
I've seen lots of campaign material from the Tories no to AV camp. The misrepresentations and outright bullshit are staggering, but they'll pull a lot of people in. Not least as I've seen absolutely fuck all from the yes camp.
That's because the yes camp is primarily weedy lefty liberals who aren't stonkingly rich. There's been grass-roots campaigning by the yes lot, including town centre demos, but no mass mailouts yet. Maybe they're going to do one closer to the day—here's hoping.
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The Tories played the last year incredibly well. They suggested this shitty system, knowing they could shoot it down because it's crap
Oddly enough, having heard a number of viewpoints on this, I'm actually warming a little to it now. I'd sooner have PR, but I don't hate AV nearly as much as I did. Interestingly, some people I know—notably those who aren't of a very specific political bent—like the idea of 'those guys are OK, those guys are OK, but not really those or those' as a voting system.
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and they knew that by waiting this long, they'd have had a year to shit all over parliament and let the public blame the Lib Dems for the mess.
Clegg got played like a flute.
Yup, but it shows how fucking stupid the public is. Yes, it's all Clegg's fault, despite the Tories being the senior partners in the coalition. Oh, and let's look at the vote, shall we?
Party :: FPTP :: AV :: STV
Tories :: 307 :: 281 :: 246
Labour :: 258 :: 262 :: 207
Lib Dem :: 57 :: 79 :: 162
Others :: 28 :: 28 :: 35
So under AV, we'd have a 281:79 ratio instead of 307:57—a bit more clout for the Libs and therefore a less Tory government. (Or, possibly, we'd have gotten a Lab/Lib coalition, since Labour might have argued they only won 19 fewer seats and therefore still had enough of a mandate.) But under STV, everything wildly changes, and we'd have had a 5:3 Tory:Lib coalition, or an even closer split for Lab:Lib, either of which would have resulted in a radically different government.
But, no, best everyone screams how awful coalitions are and buries electoral reform, so we in 2015 head increasingly towards the US system, because, as we all know, THAT WORKS WELL!