My family was not one much involved in party politics, but one of my earliest memories of such things was my father remarking that he would be “voting Lib Dem to keep the Tories out”. Since 1992, this has proved a reasonably good system – Bath has returned Don Foster to his seat time and time again. I haven’t lived in Bath since 2002 – but my family still does, and some of my friends. They’re reasonably satisfied with Don Foster, as the election results would suggest. People roll their eyes a little at the fact that he doesn’t live in the constituency, but he has been OK.

But they’re cross now. I’m not going to try and predict how many people voted for Foster on merit, or name recognition, or simply because he’s not Tory – but that third group, a group which many of my friends and family fall into, feel cheated. I’m not here to argue how good a job or not Don Foster is doing – but many people feel as though they cast a decisive “not Tory” vote, won, and got Tory anyway.

One defence of first-past-the-post is that the system can’t be blamed for the fact that people vote tactically, as many did in Bath. After all, if the majority of people really did want another candidate, they’d get that candidate if they voted for them. But I just don’t think it’s that simple. If you are left-leaning and live in Bath, you know that every vote for Labour, or the Green Party, is one that would otherwise go to the Lib Dems if the first two weren’t in the picture. You also know enough about your fellow Bathonians to know how they have behaved in previous elections – it’s a Lib Dem/Tory marginal. You’re not a campaigner, you’re not a politico…you’re not a Conservative. You might prefer Labour, or the Greens – but you vote Lib Dem, because you’re not a Conservative.

A lot of the politicos I know who aren’t in favour of AV find this hard to understand – that is, caring more about what you aren’t than what you are. “Why would I vote for anyone other than Labour?”, they say, puzzled, failing to recognise that many, many people may see bits of themselves and their values in multiple candidates – and, powerfully, none of themselves in another, popular candidate.

And people do, everywhere. And the effects of not being able to express that under FPTP is self-fulfilling – if you’re never voting for what you want, and getting something that is never more than “acceptable” or “less bad”, then what you are (in voting terms) just doesn’t seem to matter. Of course, there are far greater issues that lead to political disillusionment – but the solution to this one is really quite easy, comparatively, and I’d like to get it out of the way.

So how would AV solve that? Well, it takes away that risk, if you like – that feeling that by voting with your heart and your values, you run the risk of losing something satisfactory to something wholly unsatisfactory. In Bath, you could vote Labour, or for the Green Party as your first preference, put your “safe choice” (in this case, the Lib Dems) as second or third preference, knowing that in the event that you are in a crazy minority, your “safe” vote will be redistributed.

I describe Bath because I know it well – but to me, saying #Yes2AV is saying yes to choice, yes to voting with your heart as well as your head, and yes to votes that matter – to you as well as to the election of your elected representatives.

Categories: Labour Regeneration, Parliament Regeneration
Tags: bath, don foster, electoral reform

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One of the first things I volunteered to do after joining the Labour Party was to deliver Hope not Hate flyers in Halesowen and Pensnett in the run-up to the European elections – an experience that I valued for a number of reasons. Firstly, it was non-party political. The message was clear: if people use their votes, the BNP will not gain a West Midlands MEP. I also liked the methods – on the first run, we were delivering Hope not Hate newspapers (published by the Mirror), and one of the articles showed what the English football team would look like if we didn’t allow immigration. Half the figures were blanked out; it was a simple but powerful image. Lastly, I have a somewhat vested interest. As I mentioned in my previous post, my mother is from Iraq, and two of my Iraqi aunts, their families, and my grandmother also live (and work, in the case of my mother and aunts) in the UK, in Bath and London. The idea of anyone thinking that these hard-working members of my family were leeching off the state, or that they didn’t have a right to be here because of misguided notions of identity and ownership – it offended me deeply, and moved me to act.

You know how the story goes here – the BNP did not get an MEP in the West Midlands. Did this owe anything to Hope not Hate? Hard to say – there was a lot more activism in the North West, but this failed to prevent the election of Nick Griffin. It is important not to lose heart, but with nearly one million people having voted for the BNP, the road ahead for the Hope not Hate effort  is a difficult and important one. Those who voted BNP in the European elections had their reasons, and it may be beyond the remit of the organisation to tap into the roots of those reasons (a much bigger job for us all to undertake) – but it is vital that someone is there to highlight and expose any lies spread by the BNP and other far-right organisations.

So on Saturday, a group of us gathered in the Spade, Hammer & Pen in Erdington to discuss the next steps for Birmingham Hope not Hate. And while only members of the Labour Party, Respect and individuals of no political affiliation could make the actual meeting, others representing the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats also pledged their support. The discussion we had was incredible – many of the people in attendance had worked hard for Birmingham’s local communities for a long time, and their experience and insight into the campaigning process helped us to clarify where Hope not Hate fits alongside other organisations (such as Unite Against Fascism), what our next steps should be for the next month, and where we were headed in the long term. For now, we are focusing on garnering a more stable base of supporters so that we can become more reflexive to opportunities and issues as they arise. Ultimately, our society is better for its diversity, and I don’t want to imagine a Britain where we have lost sight of that.

This blog was originally posted on House of Twits.

Categories: Being European, Labour Doorstep
Tags: bath, birmingham, bnp, dudley, eu, european elections, hope not hate, iraq, london, newspapers, nick griffin, searchlight, unite against fascism, west midlands

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