I'm not going to do an analysis of why the referendum was lost - there are people who can do that far better than I could - but there are a couple of points to make in the wake of the result.
Last night (after a few pints!) I sent a rather flippant tweet about the result:
"Let's face it, the UK now has the electoral system it deserves. Nice work all. FFS..."
To be honest, the only reason I added "FFS" at to the end was just in case anyone thought I was being genuinely anti-AV, so perhaps it came across incorrectly. Anyway, the point I was trying to make was that yes, the people have voted (well, 40% of them), and shown that they're really not fussed. So good luck to them in the future - they're clearly more than happy with our political system and all it gives them.
My comment was retweeted by my friend Rowan, who links his tweets to his Facebook profile, where it was duly published. One of his anti-AV friends replied wondering if it was too much to ask that we were "gracious in defeat". I really didn't want to look like I was throwing my toys out of the pram on this one but clearly I did (and to be fair, I was). Rowan then replied with this:
"Yes, it is too much to ask. This isn't a nice little football game, this is about the fundamental fairness of our democracy. Should I have been "gracious in defeat" every time a bill to equalise the age of consent or legalise gay marriage was blocked? Should suffragettes have been "gracious in defeat" when they were repeatedly denied the vote? I know this isn't as big a sea-change issue, but I think it's perfectly OK for those of us who dislike today's result to be open about it. I will not apologise for that."
He makes an excellent point. There are some issues that, perhaps, you shouldn't just roll over and think "oh well, that's that one sorted". The subjects he mentions are all very important, with no-one in mainstream politics today seriously suggesting reversing them, and would almost certainly have not gone through had they been subject to a referendum thanks to the good old conservative-with-a-small-c British Public (TM). The problem is that losing a referendum gives your opponents rather a lot of ammunition to kick the issue into the long grass for a very long time. It's not at all clear where we go from here.
What this campaign has shown is that negative campaigning is still very powerful in British politics. Virtually everyone I spoke to who was voting "no" was trotting out the inaccurate one-liners from the anti-AV broadcasts and posters and speaking more in rhetorical questions that making an argument to keep FPTP. "It'll increase tactical voting" - how? "The second place person could win" - they won't. "It's like the least-worst person wins" - that's the whole point. "AV leads to more coalitions and weak goverment" - oh please...
Still, there is an upside. Firstly, we can expect to see more bullet-proof vests, police backup and maternity units thanks to not having to see AV implemented - they promised! - so we can all be thankful for that. Secondly, all those clever cloggs saying "no to AV, yes to PR" can now tell us exactly what happens next in that grand plan.
(apologies for the Facebook comment/like thing being a bit screwed at the moment - my experienced consultant on these things, i.e. Kate, will be giving it her full attention soon...as it was she who screwed it up in the first place. Love you darling x)
2 comments:
I think we are justified in being extremely UNgracious in defeat, considering how the No campaign lied and lied. The Yes campaign was poorly judged and exaggerated, but the No campaign was simply a pack of barefaced lies from start to finish - aided by nauseating far-right vulgar populists like Kelvin Mackenzie of the Sun, who urged his brain-dead readers to vote No not just on the merits or otherwise of the case, but explicitly because he hates Nick Clegg. It was not at all a fair fight.
I do agree - the observation that "both campaigns lied" doesn't give a fair representation of the truth at all. I don't think this is the last we'll hear of it either - any future progressive camapaign will be able to use it as a bench mark of what they could be up against.
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