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

Read 1 Comment »