Next week the second reading of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill will be debated; the measure in parliament that intends to introduced the proposal to hold a referendum on the Alternative Vote system.
Caroline Lucas on behalf of the Green Party, Plaid Cymru and the SNP will proposed an amendment to the legislation which will offer alternatives to voters in the referendum. A choice between AV the list system used for Assembly elections and European elections, or the Single Transferable Vote system, a system that the Liberal Democrats have supported for several decades.
Under such circumstances, what will the Liberals do?
They can support the Green amendment in the hope that Labour and the Conservatives will join together to kill the motion between them. A dangerous proposition, because Labour might back the Greens just for the thrill of giving the coalition a bloody nose!
The Liberals can abstain; which will ensure that the vote is lost, or they can vote against the amendment, in effect vote against a policy that they have supported for decades!
Opposing the Green and Nationalists amendment is the most likely response; then spinning a justification for voting against a policy that has been at the core of Liberal policy for generations.
Unscrupulous bastards? We wait an' see!
They'll vote any old way they see fit, the most important thing is to not rock the boat too much as they weigh much less than the Tories, if the boat is flung about too much they could go flying out and the Cameronian may be sole navigator
ReplyDeleteAdd Douglas Carswell into the mix...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/guy-aitchison/what-lies-behind-carswells-stv-amendment
The only party that had AV in their manifesto in 2010 we Labour...
I am going to vote against AV, because I want STV.
This is a big issue for Wales. Well done for covering an interesting aspect of it. Cannot understand why the Welsh blogosphere and media has largely ignored it. Maybe they'll be some catching up tomorrow. It should be the biggest story in Wales tonight, but it seems that its just you and me who have covered it. A 25% cut in the number of Welsh MPs and a sidelining of next year's Welsh General Election are important issues.
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