20 february 2011, change, unfortunately, voted down

In a couple of months the uk will have its first nationwide referendum since 1974. Knowing the population's innate conservatism, the then-government joined the eu first, and only subsequently asked if the status quo should be retained, "do you think the uk should stay in the common market ?". The now-government is using the same ruse on a quirky plan for england's largest 12 provincial cites to have elected mayors, first putting them in post for a year, and then asking the question. The big one though, about moving to the "alternative vote" electoral system for general elections, is tellingly different, with a paraphrase of the question being "do you want to explode three hundred years of history and tradition by moving from a tried and tested system that has delivered empire, world war two and years of never having it so good to the experiment they use in new guinea". The other dynamic is voters' typical mid-term desire, in hyper-drive this time, to give the government of the day a good kicking; though what to do when the governing parties say both yes and no ? I suspect the yellow ("yes") bit of the government will get kicked here, as anyway voters suspect political plot in any twiddles of the electoral system. A pretty clear "no" it will surely be, which is a great shame, as av is a better proposition than the one we have today which enables sometimes just a third of voters to elect a local mp and creates an elective dictatorship that rules all it surveys. Best reason to support it, is to unblock the dam(n). Very good article on this today by andrew rawnsley. Coalition government is just months old here, but I hope that in its wake, we will look again at the electoral system status quo, hopefully with a better outcome that ultimately strengthens democracy.