Anonymous X wrote:
Yeah, I was majorly disappointed too about the big unions being anti-AV. Their thinking behind that, presumably, is that FPTP = majority governments = Labour majority governments = trade-union sponsored legislation.
From what I read, there was a lot of "this coalition is bad, therefore coalition is bad, and AV might lead to more coalition", alongside hedging bets that Labour will get a majority in 2015. I think the second of those things is a pipe dream. Even if the Libs are effectively removed from the Commons (current estimates have the party with just TWO seats in 2015), they will still get anything from 8 to 17 per cent of the vote, according to current estimates—and that's the party at a low. That vote will be at the expense of Labour, not the Tories. With AV, Labour would, in some circumstances, have got that vote as a second-choice, the idiots.
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Which completely misses the point that a coalition government of Labour + someone else is still better for unionised working people than any sort of Tory government.
This too. A Lab/Lib govt, with Libs curbing Lab's appalling record on authoritarianism but with general agreement on social mobility, and the odd row over taxation and corporations could have been great. But the more things move on now, I wonder if we're actually heading for a Tory majority in 2015, or a hung parliament where NO coalition is entirely viable (i.e. where there aren't enough Con/Lab to form a working majority, but where there are also not enough natural partners).