Alternative Vote – but not too alternative…

I heard on the BBC World Service ‘Politics UK‘ program this afternoon an argument put forward by its presenter Dennis Sewell that AV should be opposed because it could elect minority parties such as the British National Party.

What that is saying is that we should support systems that make elector’s votes worthless.

We have many minority parties – I loathe the BNP but support a lot of the policies of another minority party the Green Party.  We cannot cherry pick in a democracy – it should be a platform for all views and no-one should be arbiter over what views are and are not acceptable, and gerrymander systems to ensure some sections of the electorate are disenfranchised.

If we don’t like the views of a particular party we should not suppress those views rather argue against them.

One reason of course why political parties are small is that they are unpopular – like d’oh! Alternative Voting is not an act of magic that will transform a minority party into a majority party.

AV should ensure that we are ruled by a government that speaks for at least half of us – I was born in the 1960’s and this is something that has yet to have happened in a General Election in my lifetime – that is all I believe a democracy can hope for – that what we are thinking and feeling is represented whatever those thoughts and feelings might be.