As a Labour party member, I’m sure this counts as blasphemy. But I really would, without an ounce of regret. Indeed, were it not for the fact that I only turned 18 on June 2nd (FUN FACT: the last possible date which The election could have been held on was 3rd June), I would have voted Liberal Democrat. And although I dissatisfied with a large amount of what the new government has been doing, I would still vote the same way tomorrow.
Before you close this window in disgust, I should probably mention that I live in a Tory-Lib Dem marginal in South London. If you care enough, look at an electoral map. You see that small pocket of sunshine yellow in South West London? That’s where I am. Pains me though it does to say it, Labour does not stand much of a chance in this constituency. It’s probably something of a vicious cycle: Labour don’t stand a chance here, therefore the CLP get little funding from the centre. The CLP gets little funding from the centre, therefore Labour have little chance of winning. If I had voted on May 6th (and crucially if I wanted my first-ever vote to count for something) the choice would have been between this and this. I’m sure you can understand my predicament.
This is by far the largest reason why I support the Alternative Vote. (Grades permitting) I’ll be starting at the University of Durham this October, City of Durham being a Labour seat which is hotly contested by the Liberal Democrats. However, there may not be a General Election during the 3 or 4 years I spend there. I may find myself back in Sutton and Cheam in time for the next election, probably faced with same the choice between voting for the party which I am a member of, but which cannot win, or making my vote count by voting for a party who I remain largely sympathetic to and who crucially can win.
While AV doesn’t completely eliminate the the possibility of voting tactically, it reduces it considerably. And tactical voting is not a good thing. Instead of focussing on positives: which policies we support, which party we want in government, which leader we want to be Prime Minister, we start focussing on what/which/who we don’t want, an how best to prevent them from winning, often at whatever cost. It can be effective, but its not particularly edifying. I may have encouraged all my 18+ friends to vote tactically to keep the Tories out
We need an electoral system which ensures that the number of so called ‘wasted votes’ is at the absolute minimum. I’ve already said that in my opinion this is AV’s greatest strength, but it is equally a very powerful strength of PR. What puts me of PR more than anything is the loss of the crucial MP-constituency link, something which helps keep our politicians grounded in the real world outside Westminster and humbles our most senior politicians by reminding them just who it is they came into politics to help. I find the thought of a permanent hung-parliament, with its back-room deals and compromises, very unappealing (although the 5 days between the 2010 election and the new government being formed was ridiculously exciting), and the prospect of Nick Griffin being awarded the legitimacy of a seat in the House of Commons quite frankly frightens me. It’s not often I agree with David Cameron – especially when he was scaremongering about the horrors of a hung parliament – but he’s right in saying that the country deserves the ability to remove an unpopular government; an ability denied under proportional systems such as STV.
As attractive as the prospect of the Lib Dems losing the referendum they effectively sold their political souls for is, I’ll be strongly campaigning for a yes vote next May.
You show a surprising degree of sense for an 18-year-old: that is not as condescending as it sounds – when I was 18 the only contemporaries with whom I could have an intelligent political discussion were my sisters and a some of their friends and the Hon Secretary of the university Communist Club (although when I was 19 I found the university’s “Liberal Party Group” which did genuinely discuss political issues).
However you omit one of my pet hates about PR is that the electorate have no choice about the individuals chosen by the party lists – unless they reduce the vote to less than one-sixth of 1% the individual at the top of the list will be elected. It is almost impossible for a maverick interested in his own constituency, like Dr Taylor, to be elected under PR. With PR Neil Hamilton would still be an MP instead of having been kicked out by Martin Bell, and Maggie Jones would have represented Blaenau instead of the local Labour’s party’s choice who got 80% more votes than she did.
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