The last 24 hours’ focus on voting systems – surely every Lib Dem’s dream come true? – have highlighted just how hard it will be to gain acceptance for the party’s preferred proportional voting system, the single transferable vote. It’s no surprise that almost all MPs from the two establishment parties, Labour and the Tories, are desperate to hold onto the electoral system that secures their cosy hold on power: just five Labour/Tory MPs voted to include STV in any referendum on voting reform. But it will also be the case that a significant portion of the country will need to be won over. A PoliticsHome poll this week suggested 42% of the public would vote to keep first-past-the-post, with 37% backing the alternative vote; though no proportional voting...

The House of Commons yesterday voted by 365 votes to 187 to hold a UK-wide referendum on changing the voting system next year from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote. The Lib Dems reluctantly voted for the alternative vote, as the most modest of improvements on the current, broken system. But the party, in the person of Cambridge MP David Howarth, also moved an amendment to leave out ‘an alternative-vote’ and insert ‘a single transferable vote’ – in other words, to ask Parliament to approve an electoral system which would at last reflect the votes cast for parties across the country, as happens in the vast majority of parliamentary democracies. When the Lib Dem amendment was put to the vote, it secured 69 votes, of which 55 were Lib Dem MPs. So...

Why AV would make little differenceThe Alternative Vote system which is proposed by Prime Minister Gordon Brown would make little difference to election results. It would reduce the average proportion of votes thrown away unrepresented in each constituency from 60% to 49%. Is binning every second person’s vote unrepresented democracy? Or is it just a sticking plaster to avoid real treatment that would represent the full variety of views in the electorate and end the dominance of the big parties and their leaders? It would not provide representation proportional to the number of votes cast for each party or candidate, just a slightly improved form of First-Past-the-Post which would continue to over-represent the big parties and under-represent votes for smaller parties and independent...

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues Labour has got it wrong in proposing a referendum on the Alternative Vote: only the Single Transferable Vote will remedy the unfairness of the present system. Here’s an excerpt: [The Alternative Vote] is very similar to first-past-the-post in two key respects. Because it is based on single constituencies – a virtue for its proponents, who say they prize the constituency link – the parties continue to select one candidate each, and the voters only have one choice for each party. That means that in the majority of parliamentary seats, the important decision about who should be the MP will continue to be taken in party caucuses rather than at the public ballot box. Although most MPs...

Denis Mollison has an article on Next Left about how STV would work in practice. He also shows off a map of how the UK could be divided up into multi-member constituencies. I really like what Mollison has done here. He hasn’t simply drawn lines on the map but created constituencies based on local authority boundaries. Ironically this would mean that people would identify with parliamentary constituencies more than the largely artificial ones we currently use (if the Tories get their way and replace the current system for drawing boundaries with a more technocratic one based on number of voters, this problem will get even worse). His model would also result in 140 fewer MPs. I’m sure there are decisions here and there that you could poke holes in; the London boundaries in...

Here’s how the Financial Times reports it: A hung parliament might frighten the markets, but according to Vince Cable, Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman, the concerns are “completely and totally irrational”. The Lib Dems point out that many of the world’s leading economies, including Germany and Italy, hold elections that almost always produce results where the leading party has to do deals with smaller parties. They add that some countries with single party governments, such as Greece, have some of the worst records in dealing with fiscal crises, while multiparty coalitions, such as the one in Sweden in the 1990s, conducted fierce fiscal controls. The paper quotes Vince saying, “Our own approach to fiscal policy is at least as robust as that of any other party.” It also...

The one radical thing about Labour and the Tories nowadays is how casual they are about cynical politically motivated moves that are so blindingly obvious to the public to be politicians playing games. Gordon Brown championing the Alternative Vote system would have actually been quite striking had he proposed it when he first became Prime Minister, rather than years on with months to go until a General Election that he is likely to lose.Of course AV in itself is pretty damn crappy. It isn't really proportional representation as a radical candidate could quite easily receive a lot more first preference votes than any of the other candidates and easily lose once the LibLabCon coalition shift their votes around. It is a paradise for those on the "centre-ground" of British politics whereby...

It’s not very often electoral reform tops the news headlines – which is probably no bad thing. As yesterday was one of those rare occasions, let’s see what was being said – Lib Dem bloggers had some differences of opinion: The Futility Monster took the subtle, understated approach with the headline “Stick Your AV Up Your Arse” The problem is that this is purely a gimmick, done purely to ask questions of the Lib Dems. Brown has no history of interest in electoral reform, LibCync, on the other hand, was more positive: I can’t believe anyone can seriously suggest that we shouldn’t support this. Mark Thompson ploughed a more middling furrow: I, like many Lib Dems I suspect, have very mixed feelings about it. Simon T. Kaye swings in with his PhD...

What reform and how can we achieve it? These are questions which have been asked on this blog repeatedly when it comes to demands for changing the means of electing our representatives. So what impact will be had by Gordon Brown’s announcement that Labour intend to pursue primary legislation before the General Election ensuring a referendum on the Additional Vote system? Short term electoral advantage seems to be the order of the day, with a sop to the Lib-Dems and a potential wedge between a Tory minority government and a potential Lib-Dem coalition. Overall, like Sunny, I doubt it will have much effect, though for different reasons. There are good and bad things to be said about most of the proposed systems, but no application of any of them anywhere in the world has been shown to...

Whether electoral opportunism or not, the planned introduction of a referendum on the Alternative Vote would be a significant improvement to the current First Past the Post system for electing MPs. By requiring that MPs gain the support of at least half of constituents, even if it isn’t all on the first ballot, AV would give MPs a greater sense of legitimacy at a time when they sorely need it. Already, the London Mayor is elected in this way, and there is some form of PR for elections in devolved elections and for Europe. Of course, it is not as proportional as other systems like the Additional Member System or the Single Transferable Vote (STV) which I happily learnt how to use most effectively in Ireland, but both would make it harder in a large country like Britain to retain the link...

This election will make or break Britain. It is already certain that the government that takes office after the election will face the greatest peace-time crisis we have known since the dark days of 1931… Before any government can begin to get to grips with the economic situation, it must regain the confidence and respect of the electorate. A big tip of LDV’s hat to Rudolf Fara, co-director of Voting Power and Procedures (VPP) at the LSE (via Politics.co.uk) for pointing out the similarity. Mr Fara, who was speaking ahead of ahead of a lecture last night by Vince Cable setting out his vision for a proportional representative electoral system, noted: While PR was a perennial fixture of Liberal manifestos, educating the electorate in voting systems was then a subject too...

Jason O’Mahony was a former activist and candidate for the now defunct Irish Progressive Democrats. He now blogs on politics at www.jasonomahony.ie . Let’s be honest. In the darkest chambers of British psephologist hell, beneath the pit of Parliament Channel subscribers, and even deeper than the cavern of sweaty handed ‘I’ve just found a 1970 Enoch Powell election poster. In crisp condition!’ enthusiasts, there is a special place reserved for Proportional Representation aficionados. Even amongst political anoraks and people who feel passionately about Peter Snow they are the underclass. Of course, as an Irish political activist, who has lived his entire life in a PR system, it’s different for us. In Ireland, the first-past-the-post crowd are pretty much non-existent,...

Statutory instruments. A Bill of Rights. Freedom of Information. Proportional Representation. Such ideas are not ones you hear bandied about by your average man or women on the street. Yet they were among those chosen by members of the public to try and mend the lack of trust in Britain’s political system. For those of you who’ve not yet heard of Power2010 it’s a campaign which launched in the wake of the expenses scandal, with public trust in politics at an all time low. It’s a campaign for political and democratic reform, but with a difference. At every stage of the process it’s been the public who’ve set the agenda Last weekend, 58 ideas were taken to a unique public debate. Over 100 people representing a microcosm of the UK population spent a weekend in a...

Calls for the First-Past-The-Post voting system to be abolished in the UK were given a real kick-start last year after it became clear – thanks to the work of Lib Dem blogger Mark Thompson – that it was MPs with large majorities who were more likely to be implicated in cheating the expenses system. It’s obvious if you think about it: if you were given life tenure in a safe seat where the Labour/Tory majorities are weighed not counted, how concerned would you be with the irksome business of being transparent and accountable? To put it bluntly – as Nick Clegg did, very much so, last week – First-Past-The-Post and the in-built advantage it gives the Labour and Tory parties tend to make them more prone to corruption. So far, so familiar. But I was reading Mark...

Clegg protests too much. Like all third parties, the Lib Dems would be up for sale if power was on offerMost of us are really quite pleased if someone makes a pass at us, at any rate after a certain age and if the advances aren't too gross, but Nick Clegg is the bashful sort. With a pretence of modesty, the Liberal Democrat leader rejects the overtures of David Cameron and the Tories on one side and Gordon Brown and Labour on the other. Unhand me, sirs!Any Lib Dem voter may rest assured that "there are no backroom deals or under-the-counter 'understandings' with either of the other two parties", Clegg writes. And he tells Radio 4's Today programme that "an election is about people giving politicians their marching orders", not about "politicians saying before people have had their say...

• AV could replace first-past-the-post Westminster system• Re-elected government would hold vote by October 2011Gordon Brown is to introduce a law to guarantee that a re-elected Labour government would hold a referendum within two years on abolishing Britain's first-past-the-post system for elections to the Westminster parliament.Electoral reformers hailed the move to abolish the winner takes all system which gave Labour 55% of the seats in the House of Commons in 2005 on an overall share of just 35.3% of the vote.Ministers are to introduce paving legislation within months to ensure a referendum by October 2011 on replacing the first-past-the-post system with the Alternative Vote (AV) system.Under the current system voters place an X against the name of just one candidate; the winner...

The need to reform the Electoral System was underlined by a number of us on the Liberal Democrat benches in the House of Lords.The possibility of it being included in the Queen’s Speech was always minimal but we dared to hope.. We are still living in an age with a system that goes back 200 years. We are trying to run a modern democracy on a dinosaur of a system. In 1832, the Great Reform Act just doubled the electorate from half a million to 1 million. In 1867, the electorate was increased to 2.5 million. In 1884, agricultural workers were added and the electoral total went up to 5 million. In 1918, the great leap forward came when women aged over 30 were given the vote and the total electorate became 21 million. This was further increased to 28 million in 1928 when women and men aged...

Another day, another TWO new big ideas for solving the deep problem inherent in our electoral system. Without, you know, actually solving the deep problem inherent in our electoral system. First we have Geoffrey Wheatcroft who proposes annual elections. Because, you know, the Chartists did. Imagine that. Political parties in permanent election mode – even more than they are now. I guess it is one of those ideas you either think is genius or stupid and no-one is going to persuade you either way. Needless to say, I come under the latter category. Second, we have Open Up, a new campaign to persuade ALL the parties to hold Open Primaries in ALL constituencies before the next general election. Again. Once you have gone down the route of such mental decrepitude, there is probably...

To be a fair, a former Labour minister, ex-SDP leader and Tory voter is probably the natural person to advocate a national unity government – and that’s exactly what David Owen has done today in an article in The Times: Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, and his deputy, Vince Cable, need to position themselves as ready to shoulder the burden of responsibility for hard economic choices, and help to provide, with one of the big parties, the principled, practical government that the country so sorely needs. That means talking to voters about participating in a government of national unity. The Liberal Democrats, from now until the election, should repeatedly assert not that they are going to form the next government — which is not plausible — but that they intend to be...

During the debate on MPs’ expenses at the Lib Dem conference recently, one of the speakers, Michael Meadowcroft, suggested that instead of having open primaries as a way of restoring trust in the political process, why not use the Single Transferable Vote (STV) instead? STV has been the preferred voting system of the Liberal party and Liberal Democrats for many decades, and was championed by the greatest liberal of all, John Stuart Mill, in the nineteenth century. This week Gordon Brown announced that Labour, if re-elected, would propose a referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) system, in which instead of marking your ballot paper with an X, you write down your preferences by rank, 1, 2, 3, etc … The problem with AV is that you are still only electing one person per...

Image via Wikipedia I’m a Green Party member and yet me and my beloved both decided yesterday—or realised the inevitable—which is that, if we vote according to our conscience as a fixed absolute, we will be colluding in bringing this country to its knees under a Tory government at the General Election. Despite the Iraq War, despite the erosion of civil liberties, despite many things, we cannot let in a bunch of Tories who, under the surface, are torn between two very different factions but agree only on supporting the rich, destroying public services, and making the poor even poorer. A Tory government would push more people below the poverty line, cut or stop already meagre benefits for the sick and disabled (that’s guaranteed), and would have the potential to...

The Labour Party manifesto 1997: We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system. Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour Party conference 2009: There is now a stronger case than ever that MPs should be elected with the support of more than half their voters – as they would be under the Alternative Voting system. And so I can announce today that in Labour’s next manifesto there will be a commitment for a referendum to be held early in the next Parliament it will be for the people to decide whether they want to move to the Alternative Vote. So a 1997 commitment to a proprotional electoral system has become a...

There’s been plenty of interesting Lib Dem internet chatter asking whether – now Ukip’s soon-to-be-ex-leader Nigel Farage is breaching normal convention and standing against the incumbent Speaker, Tory MP John Bercow, in Buckingham – the Lib Dems should follow suit. Opinion is divided. Some say we absolutely shouldn’t – here, for instance, is Stephen Glenn: … while the ‘convention’ for not standing against a sitting speaker is not as set in stone as some people may have you believe, it is none the less a precedent symbolising the apolitical nature of the role. Indeed it seems to be one, that even if contested, the constituents seem to back up as not one speaker seeking election since 1969 has polled less than 50% of the vote. And...

George Osborne has chosen to eschew the hospitality of Nathan Rothschild this year - or more likely the other way around - in order to speak to us about the Conservatives as the new progressives. But they are progressives with a twist: as a result of their belief in reform, they will also save cash, he says.Let's take these propositions at face value. On reform, the record is pretty patcy. It is true that Michael Gove has some interesting ideas on schools, though his structural school reforms largely build on Labour academies and legal requirements for more providers in schools. The big difference is the cost. An extra 220,000 surplus school places are promised, and are essential to deliver the promised changes, at a cost of £1 billion a year. Some £4.5 billion of capital would be...

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free’s ‘A New Politics’ strand Lib Dem blogger James Graham argues that if Gordon Brown is serious about electoral reform Lib Dems should support him – but we must be wary of any proposed referendum. Here’s an excerpt: Moving to the alternative vote system might be an improvement but it is a baby step, hardly worth having a referendum over at all. Even the Jenkins-designed alternative vote plus is not without its problems. Developed 10 years ago in a failed attempt to appease Tony Blair, it is a classic example of triangulation politics. As such it is not only one of the least representative electoral systems (barring first past the post and AV) but also one of the most complex. It certainly would be a step in the right...

Word has it they might: The idea, backed by senior ministers, has come to light amid growing recriminations within the Labour party over poor campaign strategy and a lack of fresh ideas for attacking Cameron, following Labour’s thumping loss in Thursday’s Norwich North byelection. Last night, after the Conservatives overturned a 5,000 Labour majority to win the Norwich seat by 7,348 votes, Labour MPs gave warning that, unless the party did more than peddle scare stories about possible Tory spending cuts, it faced a wipeout at the next election. Cabinet sources have revealed that one idea being developed is to paint Cameron as a leader opposed to a wide-ranging reform of the political system that voters are demanding following the scandal over MPs’ expenses. As part of...

It’s time to Vote for a Change. Sign the petition here for a referendum on proportional representation. The politicians have lost interest already in clearing up their act, and it’s back to surveillance, greed and control – all without your say-so. This has to stop – make it stop by changing the voting system for Westminster elections. The wrong people are in parliament because the system is geared up to keeping them there, and stopping people who genuinely want to improve life in this country from getting in. That stranglehold needs to be broken. Disgusted with New Labour’s total disregard for human right and the rule of law? Support the referendum – Martin Bell, a man who set the standard – is right....

Electoral reform can’t wait anymore. Do you want another arrogant New Labour shambles, with ID cards, the ISA, their superdatabase by the back door, tacit support of police brutality against protest and dissent (particularly against climate dissent), and of course their UK Border Agency goons, brutalising asylum seekers and locking up their children? What about another round with the Tories? Do you think they’ll seriously dump any of that? Of course they’ll both do as they please unless there is some form of constitutional constraint on their excessive and abusive behaviour – the minimum we should expect is a reform to the voting system for Westminster. There was a time during the expenses scandal when the major parties were close to agreeing, but no more –...

Graham Dines, political correspondent for the East Anglian Daily Times (one of the few remaining independent-minded newspaper titles in England), says that it would be "refreshing" to have UKIP MPs in Westminster.He also makes the point that I have made many, many times about the BNP (and to a lesser extent UKIP) that whether or not a political party suscribes to the mainstream agenda, if...

An unseemly spat has broken out between Bethan Jenkins and Peter Black on Twitter: PB: @bethanjenkins you were considering rainbow option weeks after LD exec vote. Your rejected it. Nothing delusional about that. BJ: @peterblackwales- your party refused it before that. PB: @bethanjenkins no it didnt Bethan.My party voted for it. Stop rewriting history. BJ: @peterblackwales i think you are the one doing that. PB: @bethanjenkins not at all. Review the events not the myths generated by your spin doctors. …and so on. Speaking as an outsider, what surprises me is that this is even a matter of debate. The timetable of events is quite clear: 24 May 2009: Rainbow Coalition talks in disarray after Lib Dem NEC rejects the proposal on the chair’s casting vote. 25 May 2009: Rhodri...

Over at The Guardian Lib Dem supporter (and former ‘agony aunt’) Claire Rayner argues that only electoral reform can break the cycle of cynicism over politics and politicians by encouraging people to vote again. Here’s an excerpt: So, the right to vote was fought for, and everyone over the age of 18 in the UK is able to choose their representative for minor and important matters of state. Do they? Do they, hell. We have the most feeble of democracies because people do not bother exercising their right to vote. A disappointing number of eligible Britons turned up to vote for their MEPs this spring, and those who don’t vote are often those who whine the most about our involvement with Europe. There is a cure for this lamentable sickness in our so-called democracy....

Like many Lib Dems, the prospect of bringing in a fairer voting system makes me all a-flutter. We know that first-past-the-post is unrepresentative, and the recent impetus towards reform (if I may put it so tacitly) has opened the door to the overhaul of our electoral system. However, it appears as though the door has been partially blocked by the baby gate of Alternative Vote Plus, the brainchild of the Jenkins Commission. Akin to a less proportional version of the Additional Member System used in Scotland, Wales and in London Assembly elections, AV+ would make our voting system slightly more representative – but not to the point where it would frighten Labour and Conservative MPs raised on a diet* of safe seats. Since this appears to be the best offer on the table, our Take Back...

Cast your minds back 10 days, and there was a flurry of excitement at the prospect of Gordon Brown deciding to do something radical, and reform the voting system. It wasn’t long before the Prime Minister was back-tracking to make clear that he was simply in favour of reviewing the situation. But still the prospect of voting reform prompted LDV to ask the forced question: “Should Lib Dems back the Alternative Vote in a referendum if it’s the only option for voting reform?” Here’s what you told us: 51% (175 votes): Yes, it’s better than first-past-the-post 35% (122): No, we should hold out for a truly proportional system 9% (32): No, we should stick with first-past-the-post 5% (16): Other Total Votes: 345. Poll ran: 10th-17th June 2009 So, there you have it –...

The impetus towards proportional is already slowing, now the furore over the expenses scandal has marginally died down, and Brown’s authority has waned. All the fine words expressed between the height of the scandal and the European parliamentary elections – were they all hot air, have they been drowned out by louder voices following the BNP’s election to two seats in Strasbourg? The problem I see is politicians from the progressive parties advocating reform, but without the authority needed to sound convincing. Clegg has been pushing hard for PR whilst campaigning strongly for the EU, Johnson and Ed Miliband have also for New Labour, but both parties were hammered in the EU elections and Johnson’s motivations are dubious to put it mildly. It’s no surprise...

Talk of PR makes me all of a dither. It’s the political scientist in me. I can see the pros and cons of every system and I can see that whatever system is in place it is not a panacea for the nation’s ills (nor the cause of them all either). Alternative Vote, though, would seem to be a completely redundant change. Because in effect that is the system we already have. AV gives you lots of safe seats where the winning party gets more than 50% of the vote. So does first past the post. In the marginal seats, AV then makes the two most popular parties in a constituency compete for the second preferences of the less popular parties’ voters. And that is exactly what happens in our system now. In every election since the war, voters have plumped for the candidate nearest to their...

Quote from the 2005 General Election Manifesto: We will extend this fair voting system (STV) to all local elections in Britain, and to the House of Commons …” And, indeed, as a long-term aim that’s a very sensible move - but as we know both in Wales and Scotland you cannot suddenly change from one situation to another without first making progress. Welsh Liberals (even as far back as 1910) advocated devolution for Wales and, thanks to the stages in devolution (the first Welsh Secretary of State in the 1960s and the Welsh Grand Committee), when devolution was offered in 1997 Wales accepted it. Similarily for our long-term aim of STV, we should recognise that the Alternative Vote is progress towards that aim. As such, when the Prime Minister speaks in the Commons today I...

For a brief moment last night, it sounded as if the Prime Minister was at last going to seize the reform agenda, and perhaps even promise a referendum on voting reform. The reality is, as so often with Labour, more disappointing than that: Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said he has “no plans” for a referendum on changes to the electoral system before the next general election. … he told prime minister’s questions he had “never supported proportional representation for Westminster elections” and ruled out a referendum. Labour’s brief flirtation with electoral reform appears to have centred around adopting the Alternative Vote, a non-proportional system of preferential voting which retains MPs’ constituency links while ensuring all elected MPs have...

Gordon Brown’s decision to remain as leader of the Labour pemocracyarty and, as a consequence, prime minister of this country serves only to shatter what is left of the publics faith in representative democracy. His decision to remain and those spineless Labour MP’s that surround him demonstrate their utter contempt for the people of this country. It is clear that the vast majority of Labour MP’s are petrified of losing their seats as an angry electorate reacts to the appalling way we have been treated and punishes them for bringing our country to the verge of bankruptcy through a combination of poor stewardship, lack of foresight, incompetence and their spendthrift policies. Rather than face the wrath of the people for their comprehensive failure, they choose to...

The title almost gives me nervous hysterics. This body is supposed to be the engine room for driving democratic reform in this country. So, does it include all parties, the church, Women's Institute, Boys Brigade etc etc like the Constitutional Convention which gave birth to the Scottish Assembly? Er...no.So what is it then?Well, it's just a Cabinet sub-committee basically. Downing Street says lists its members and gives other details - or highlights the absence of details - of the council. The members are:Jack Straw, Harriet Harman, Lord Mandelson, Alistair Darling, David Miliband, Alan Johnson, Hilary Benn, Douglas Alexander, John Denham, Shaun Woodward, Baroness Royall, Jim Murphy, Peter Hain, Michael Wills, Nick Brown and Steve Bassam (the Lords Chief Whip - to attend when Lords...

The Europe-wide picture The consensus seems to be that, Europe-wide, it was a good election for the centre-right. It certainly seems as though the governing centre-left parties have taken a bit of a battering, while voters seem content with centre-right governments. Those of a socialist persuasion may well feel disgruntled. In the midst of an economic crisis which they say was caused by the excesses of capitalism, voters seem to have lost faith in socialist parties’ ability to deal with it. The far left also took a knock. On the other hand, the Green grouping is the one grouping (aside from non-aligned) to have increased its representation in the European Parliament. Interestingly, despite the fact that apathy was the clear winner of the election across the EU, the main Eurosceptic...