AV Referendum

[AtW]

will fail

[NotAllThere]

I voted no. If the question had been "Are you in favour of the keeping the current system?", the answer would still have been no. While the best option is clearly benign dictatorship under my rule, as a rather poor second, I'd go for direct democracy like the Swiss.

[TykeMerc]

I think the Mash sums the issue up nicely.

The Daily Mash - Cameron and Clegg clash over how to elect greedy, incompetent freaks

[darmstadt]

I don't really know what AV is as I haven't been following this story but had a quick gander but still don't really care but over here its PR thats used and we have the local elections soon where I can vote. I get sent an example ballot card which is massive with all the parties on it and all the candidates on it, its ******* huge and is here (watch out..PDF.) I have 71 votes which I can use and have been reading through the instructions and I reckon that if they provided coffee and cakes in the ballot box I could spend the whole day there. I can just imagnine something like that in the UK, have the population wouldn't be able to work out how to vote and the other half would moan that it takes too long and why should we be like the Europeans


Its also traditional in Germany to have elections on a Sunday so there is no need to take time off work or shut part of a school and families use it as an excuse to go for a gentle afternoon stroll. Now to work out who to vote for...the Pirate Party, Uffbasse (Local slang for 'watch out' and is a local punk party,) or...

[thunderlizard]

Direct mail

Have you had the letter from the "Yes" campaign? How patronising is that!

It tells you that AV is better and fairer. But instead of providing any arguments in favour, it has photos and quotes from 6 celebs (3 actors, 2 comedians, 1 cringeworthy poet): the implication being "You've seen these people on the telly. They're voting Yes, so you should too".

One of them is Colin Firth for heaven's sake. I'm sure he's lovely, but being famous for climbing out of a pond in 1995 does not make him a credible political theorist.

[doodab]

I'm sure he's lovely, but being famous for climbing out of a pond in 1995 does not make him a credible political theorist.

Sad to say, you are probably in a minority of people in the UK who think that.

[thunderlizard]

hmm. You've reminded me of this. Quite a clever point really:

Just say no | Spectator, The | Find Articles at BNET

[TykeMerc]

Have you had the letter from the "Yes" campaign? How patronising is that!

It tells you that AV is better and fairer. But instead of providing any arguments in favour, it has photos and quotes from 6 celebs (3 actors, 2 comedians, 1 cringeworthy poet): the implication being "You've seen these people on the telly. They're voting Yes, so you should too".

One of them is Colin Firth for heaven's sake. I'm sure he's lovely, but being famous for climbing out of a pond in 1995 does not make him a credible political theorist.

Not had that letter yet, however as someone who despises the cult of celebrity it would be tricky for them to have come up with a more compelling method to make me consider voting no.
It's long past overdue that the first past the post system is abandoned, although all politicians are so alike that voting is barely worth the effort of showing up.

[Sands of Time]

I hate all this pseudo-democracy!!

Bing!

[OwlHoot]

Not had that letter yet, however as someone who despises the cult of celebrity it would be tricky for them to have come up with a more compelling method to make me consider voting no.

and given this list includes Eddie Izzard and Stephen Fry, I'd vote no if they were campaigning to carry on not roasting babies on spits!