If you get the X-Factor, you can get AV

Johann Hari:

Today, I have a Member of Parliament I didn’t vote for. So do you, in all likelihood. So do 66 percent of us. At first glance, that seems impossible in a democracy. How can a huge majority of us end up with an MP we didn’t vote for? Isn’t the whole point of democracy that the majority prevails?

Not under our current voting system – First Past the Post (which I’m going to refer to with the sexy acronym FPTP). Next week, we are being offered an alternative – the Alternative Vote (AV). The difference is pretty simple. Under FPTP, you put a cross next to the person you want as your MP. Under AV, you number them 1,2,3 – so I could express my desire for the Greens first, Labour second, and so on, for as many parties as I want to give my approval to.

All this is a shame, because there is a real criticism of AV that has gone unheard. It’s that it doesn’t go nearly far enough. Nick Clegg once called it “a miserable little compromise”, and there’s some truth in that. Ironically enough, AV wouldn’t be my first preference for a new system. The biggest problem with our electoral system is that it isn’t proportional.

Let me explain. In Britain today, we have a centre-left majority who want this to be a country with European-level taxes, European-standard public services and European-level equality. We have had this for a very long time. Even at the height of Thatcherism, 56 percent of people voted for parties committed to higher taxes and higher spending. But the centre-left vote is split between several parties – while the right-wing vote clusters around the Conservatives. So under FPTP they get to rule and dominate out of all proportion to their actual support, and drag most of us in a direction we don’t want to go. That’s why the Tories are united in supporting the current system, and throwing a fortune at preventing any change.

AV takes a very small step towards dealing with this, and so I will certainly vote yes in the referendum. But it still doesn’t get us very far.

It comes down to this. On May 5th, you can vote No with David Cameron, the BNP and a campaign that thinks you are too thick to count to three – or you can vote Yes with all the progressive forces in British politics, massed together to move democracy forward a few small inches. What’s your preference?

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