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On the 5th May there is to be a referendum on changing the voting system in the UK. We currently operate under the much criticized ‘First-Past-The-Post’ (FPTP) system. For those that are unaware, under this system when we are in the voting booth we get to cross the box of one candidate in our constituency, then the candidate with the most votes wins. A major criticism of FPTP is that it can lead to candidates with very little support gaining parliamentary seats, thus making the constituent feel that their vote doesn’t count - perhaps a contributory factor to our pitiful levels of voter participation.
The new proposed way is the ‘Alternative Vote’ (AV) system. Under AV the voter can rank candidates by preference and can rank as few or as many candidates as they like. When the votes are counted if a candidate receives a majority of first preference votes, the majority being more people putting them as number one than all the rest combined, then they are elected. If no candidate can be elected on this basis then the second preference votes of the candidate who finished last on the first count are redistributed and the process is repeated until someone gets over 50 percent. AV is being billed as a fairer system where people can feel their vote counts more and people can stop being represented by an MP most people didn’t vote for. Nick Clegg, who in opposition to David Cameron is backing AV, believes that FPTP leads to MPs getting an easy win in their constituency and feeling they have a job for life. He believes that feelings like this led to the expenses scandal, and with an AV system MPs will have to work harder to retain seats as the public has more choice.
I am not writing to argue for or against AV, that’s for individuals to decide, although I’m sure it will beat our current system in the polls. I am writing because I have come to realise that the perceived failure of FPTP is something to feel sad about. Not sad because a voting system is probably on its way out, not sad because I feel it is better than AV (I don’t), but sad because of what it represents. The need for AV seems to me to represent that passion for politics is on its last legs. AV is being proposed as a response to the great cry of ‘My vote doesn’t count’. If AV is the answer to this, then a vote only doesn’t count because everyone believes and acts upon that principle. A vote would matter more if everyone voted for who they truly believed in, be it Labour, Liberal Democrats, Green Party or the Legalise Cannabis Alliance!
Passion in politics should be present within us, and AV just doesn’t sit well with that. It is a more democratic vote, it’s more fair and modern, yet neither fairness nor modernity evokes passion for politics. Passionate belief is more about emotion than a thought process and outside of rational considerations. Ranking preferences completely removes this passion from politics. I can’t even begin to imagine walking into a voting booth and thinking ‘well I want to vote for Y candidate but X is alright so I guess he can get my second choice and Z isn’t so bad, at least he’s better than A & B so I’ll give him my third’. It seems like utter lunacy that voting for what you believe in can be reduced to voting for what you believe in but then for what is alright, what is quite good, what is not too bad and what is… not disastrously awful. Political parties should represent a part of who we are, we should feel so affiliated with a party and believe so passionately in what they want to do that the thought of giving a vote to a candidate who is just a bit more preferable to another is ridiculous to our political psyche.
When we fall in love, we give our heart to one person; we don’t give a share of it to one person then ration out the rest to other acceptable candidates. We don’t settle. We throw ourselves in because we feel for the cause; I believe politics should be like that. Whether it is a problem of a 'pick’n’mix' society, a problem relating to ourselves, a problem in the political parties or an amalgamation of all three is debatable. Whatever the reason is I am going to overcome it and keep my passion for my party. If we do get AV, when I get in that voting booth at the next election I’ll be sure to only vote for one candidate because I have passion for what I believe in and I’m not going to settle for second best.
I will probably vote Yes to AV. But I'm not sure how workable it is. To me, it seems better suited to democracies such as Ireland and Italy that offer a profusion of parties and factions. Put simply, many democracies' election results feature parties that were thought to have done very well and who will lead government coalitions with 25% of the vote. In the UK we are still very much in 40% plus territory if you have any chance of government. That may be our problem? Our two leviathan parties are famously 'broad churches' in terms of the views represented therein, where Labour's spread goes from Marxist mentalists to neo-liberal evangelists and the Tories vary from an almost soft-socialist Christian Democrat stance to hang 'em, flog 'em Mail-reading nationalist psychopaths. AV might either do nothing or perhaps encourage us to fine-slice our politics, which I think might be good for us. Where many voters will differ from you is that they may not share your passion for a party and vote pragmatically rather than with conviction. It's not so much about having to vote tactically, but voting with a bit of a shrug. My home constituency will be interesting if AV comes about. I come from a town that has always had a massive Tory vote and a massive Labour one: it is very polarised and the Lib Dems rarely get a look in. It is a classic barometer constituency. For the last 50 odd years, its MP has been a government MP. It is very much a mini-UK. I'm not yet sure how AV will affect that kind of vote.
great article!
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