If I Bother to Vote, I’ll Vote No

I wasn't bribed... Honest.

I know what you’re thinking- go easy on the negativity, oh Infantile One. Sorry, can’t. You see I’m not exactly feeling the love today and unfortunately voting reform is about as intellectually stimulating as a beige room with beige furniture. Yet the left can’t make its mind up. The Socialist Workers Party says no, as does the Communist Party of Britain, Counterfire, the Alliance for Workers Liberty and much of the Labour left. The Communist Party of Great Britain, Workers Power, Socialist Resistance and the Communist Party of Great Britain – Marxist Leninist (tee hee) are calling for a yes vote, presumably because they like the idea of being further marginalised in electoral politics. Meanwhile, the Socialist Equality Party has declared that the “only vote worth registering on May 5 is for our candidates, Simon Walker in Walkley, Sheffield and Robert Skelton in Ardwick, Manchester.” So I guess that’s a ‘no’ then.

In all fairness, it’s not easy to oppose AV. It’s never easy to say wait a moment: I get that what we have now is totally rubbish but what you’re proposing is even worse. The UK’s voting system is not fair. Proponents of FPTP argue that it’s a case of one (wo)man, one vote. What they don’t mention is that some votes are worth more than others. In a marginal seat, your vote carries enough weight to potentially change who goes to Parliament. In a safe seat, you might as well not bother. Voters in constituencies like mine, Manchester Central, are left feeling disenfranchised. Here it’s Labour or nothing. Even worse, under FPTP a party can win a majority of votes, yet not be the majority in parliament. Heck, it can win a majority and not win a plurality (a majority of less than 50%). In the 2005 election, as many as 70% of votes cast were wasted votes in the sense that they had zero impact on the election outcome.

That’s FPTP. It’s dreadful, isn’t it? So why not just vote for AV? I mean it’s not as it compromise is a dirty word (don’t quote me on that. It actually is.) AV seeks to redistribute the votes of those of us who pick unpopular candidates amongst the less offensive candidates until – voila! – we have it: a candidate so utterly inoffensive, so mind-numbingly mediocre, so very dull, that more or less everyone is OK with the outcome and just about no one is truly happy.

Nobody likes a Tory, so obviously they’re going to lose under AV. The BNP will lose out too. Unfortunately, that’s not a reason to vote for AV. Anything the BNP loses, the far left loses also. As does everyone who isn’t into utterly inoffensive, mind-numbingly mediocre and very, very dull candidates. AVwon’t make MPs work harder for your vote; it’ll make them work harder to occupy the centre ground.

I don’t want AV. I want PR and this “miserable little compromise” isn’t that. It’s not even close. I don’t want to change the voting system and discover that the changes have been made and that’s it for another generation. So that’s why if I muster the enthusiasm to vote, it’s going to be a big NO.

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