“The Alternative Vote ...... does not give voters real power over both the party and the person elected as MP.
“Only the Single Transferable Vote in multi-member seats would abolish MPs’ meal tickets for life, and we will fight to amend this proposal to give people a real choice for a more significant change.” Chris Huhne, setting out the LibDems' flagship policy, 1st Feb 2010
Thanks to Green Party MP Caroline Lucas, together with Douglas Carswell (Con) and Austin Mitchell (Lab) we could all have had a referendum vote on it, if their amendment to the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill hadn't been voted down by most MPs, including the LibDems themselves, led by Nick Clegg and including our very own Stephen Williams!
How do LibDems live with such a betrayal of promise and principle?
Caroline's amendment, which would have allowed us voters, not the MPs, to choose the voting system that we use to elect them, can be found here. Then 'FIND' 'I am pleased to move' to get to the debate itself, which is actually worth a read, though it won't add to your confidence in our democracy!
6 comments:
I guess the vote relates to the Coalition agreement, that the Liberal Democrats and Liberal Democrats both signed up to deliver a stable Government for this country.
The alternative would have been a short, minority, Conservative Government, with another general election (probably a week ago yesterday!).
STV is preferred, but AV is fairer than FPTP (as the Green Party has acknowledged at their conference I believe)
We need to join with all those who want to see a fairer voting system to deliver a "yes" vote in next May's referendum.
Oops - spot the error!
So I guess election pledges designed to obtain our votes count for absolutely nothing then. You might as well promise anything and then just laugh when elected.
Oh. That's what you have done.
BobS
The Coalition policies reflect the mixture of parties involved.
http://bit.ly/9Pm3Nt
The Coalition policies reflect a nasty little neo-liberal agenda that needs to be stopped.
Violently if necessary.
Oops - spot the error!
Got it! You didn't mean "signed up to deliver a stable Government for this country" - you meant "signed up to do the bidding of the money markets"
Seems to me all your headline policies - the ones that won (or lost) votes - have been abandoned. PR, Trident, nuclear energy, tuition fees, environmental investment... What we're getting from this coalition is what the Tories and Liberals have in common - an ideological surrender to the Adam Smith Institute. And to hell with the future.
Sorry, Jon - I really can't understand how you can stomach it. This is like watching all those Bristol City fans touching their forelocks to Mr Lansdown.
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