caddyman | Referendum (Reply)

Referendum Day has crept up on us largely unwanted and uncared for by the British public. I expect turnout will be low, reflecting the general apathy of the population at large and that’s a shame.

Today is only the second time in history that the government of the day has asked the opinion of the public. Sometimes the public lets the government know what its mood is by, ahem, extra-constitutional means, but in general terms the government of the day tends to the paternalistic ‘daddy knows best’ view and does largely as it pleases, making fantastical promises once every four or five years so it can get on with ignoring the population other than to order their lives for them.

Over the years my political views have wobbled from centre left to centre right and back again. In some cases I support one lot, in other cases, I support the others. Right now I am actually glad there isn’t a general election because I can’t think of a single one of them anywhere across the political spectrum is worth their seat in Parliament. They pretend not to be, but they are isolated from the public. The current crop of politicians by and large don’t get it. They need to be made to get it. They need to be reminded that in a country that flatters itself that it is a democracy, they the politicians, are the servants of the people not vice versa.

So on the rare occasions they ask the people a question, the people really ought to answer them. They should turn out and vote and individuals should vote with their conscience. If the result is not what you personally want, well that’s democracy, isn’t it? You can still try to change things.

Whether you plan to vote ‘yes’ or to vote ‘no’ today, you should at least turn up and put a cross in a box. You may be offered another opportunity to give an opinion, but the odds are that you won’t.

I intend to pop along tonight on my way home and vote yes. Not because I like the AV system, I don’t particularly, but it at least attempts to deal with the unfairness of the present system. First Past the Post is not a bad system, but it only truly works when there is a simple two-way choice. There rarely is these days in any election: even if we discard the eccentrics standing for arcane reasons of their own, the minimum choice is between three major parties in most places and in others four or five.

Simply put, ‘yes or no’ doesn’t work if the choice is greater than two. AV isn’t great and we should look for a better voting system. That is not an argument for leaving the one we have in place.

The simple -some would say simplistic- explanation below explains the ‘oh so complex’ AV system that we are though to be too dim to understand quite clearly. I have seen one rebuttal of this: if none of the beer drinkers like the alternative pubs, you still end up with coffee. So the rebuttal to the example is simply that the worst possible result under AV is the only possible result under FPTP.

Whichever way you decide to vote, at least go out and vote.

Oh, and by the way: if you are a member of any of the three major parties and voted for your party's leader, you did it using AV. Edited to add: Unless you are a member of the Conservative Party - see