AV referendum.

[CanisMajor]

Just watching the Andrew Marr Show and the PM said that AV is used only by Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinnea. So do we really want a system that is so unnattactive? Apparently to make this work Australia has made voting a legal requirement. Surely any system where a stick is needed if flawed. Sorry if this has been discussed already,I'm a recent joiner.

[rojash]

Compulsory voting in Australia is completely unconnected to the voting method used. Australia's attitude is that you have a civic duty to participate in the democratic process.

[toalisi]

A recent poll showed that most Aussies did not like the AV system.

[MarkRae]

^^ Correct, and Fiji are in the process of returning to the first past the post system...

[boxtops]

... so I hope we don't get it here.

[CanisMajor]

fair enough rojash but it could be argued that democracy means choice, even the choice to not vote. It smacks of a sort of dictat, "you will participate in democracy!"

[toalisi]

hear hear

[MarkRae]

Indeed, Boxy. All this nonsensical advertising about "make your MP work harder" is, frankly, preposterous, IMO. MPs will continue to be as hard-working and honourable (or free-loading and corrupt) under AV as they ever were...

[MarkRae]

My opinion on that, CM, is that if you forgo your democratic right to vote then you are not entitled to complain about the elected MP if he/she turns out to be not to your liking...

[venator]

AV or PR is part of the Lib Dem religion.

If there's a no vote, I just hope there won't be another referendum next year.

We saw that when Ireland didn't "get it right" and the EU made them try again.

There should be a rule that you can't repeat a referendum for 20 years at least!

[toalisi]

I was applauding boxtops but my post appeared out of place!

[mike11111]

If FPTP had been used then on the figures Boris Johnson would still have won. Cameron failed to get 50% amongst MPs. He was elected by a large majority of party members who were offered a choice of only two candidates.

[whiskeryron]

I disagree with most of you but my attitude is still why should we put up with the present system whereby the electorate are governed by a party who have been selected by a minority of voters, I think that whatever you think about A/V it's time to try something else.Ron.

[Mampara]

The Labour wanted David Miliband but via AV got ED!

[Mampara]

Should have been Labour Party ^^

[colinatyeo]

Re AV
Fiji do use it, but are thinking of dumping it
Australia uses it, but 60% of voters do not agree with it
This really leaves Papua New Guinea as sole supportive users - but for how
much longer!!!!!!!!!

[venator]

Was Cameron elected by AV?
Was it AV exactly as proposed?
Can anyone post a definitive link about this?

Otherwise, it stinks of panic by the no campaign.

[venator]

Sorry, meant yes campaign panic !!!!

[MarkRae]

I find your answer puzzling, Ron. FPTP is concerned with individual candidates, not collective votes. E.g.

Candidate A - 40%
Candidate B - 30%
Candidate C - 20%
Candidate D - 10%

So, candidate A is elected because he/she received more votes than any other INDIVIDUAL candidate. It's clearly true that 60% of the voters in the above scenario didn't want Candidate A to win. The problem is that their vote was split among the other candidates.

AV doesn't actually solve that. It just uses a mathematical algorithm whereby the least popular candidate is discarded and their votes redistributed. This process is then repeated until one candidate is allocated more than 50% of the overall votes. At this stage, the candidate who received the most number of "first-choice" votes is HIGHLY UNLIKELY to be the winner. Under AV, the votes of the least popular candidate can play a major role in deciding who wins the election.

FPTP may not be the best system, but AV is just farcical, IMO...

[colinatyeo]

I am going to put NO as my first choice on the referendum
with YES as my second choice!