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Thursday 5 May 2011

AV referendum

Well I’ve voted yes to AV as the only sensible option. Apparently, some people think FPTP has served us well enough to stick with it. Some think we should stick with FPTP because other countries use it. I won’t argue, because arguments don’t usually lead anywhere.

I do think we should consider the quality of our elected representatives though, those currently in place thanks to FPTP. That body of men and women so recently enmeshed in a major expenses scandal where some were even jailed. I think we should consider their preference for evasion over truthfulness, their propensity to cede power to the EU without asking us, their failure to foresee the banking crisis and their general and obvious lack of competence.

FPTP may not be to blame of course, but we only have this one opportunity to flag the system as broken. The likelihood of another opportunity cropping up is rather low I think.