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alternative vote

  • 9 May 2011
    Time for a bolder vision of our democratic future

    There can be no one who voted or campaigned for the Alternative Vote who believed it to be anything other than a first step towards full reform of the electoral system. Initially, Nick Clegg's petulant description of it as a “miserable little compromise” seemed an example of the perfect being permitted to become the enemy of the possible. However, it now seems that the pursuit of incremental change may have turned out to be a mistake.

  • 8 May 2011
    Political reformers reflect on huge anti-AV referendum vote

    Reformers say that the case for voting, parliamentary and political reform in Britain remains strong, despite the setback in the AV referendum on 5 May

  • 5 May 2011
    Taking the No campaign to its logical conclusion

    The main arguments used by the 'No to AV' campaign are, if taken to their logical conclusion, arguments against democracy. Every one of their leading arguments could be used an argument against holding elections at all.

  • 5 May 2011
    AV Referendum debate: a full timeline

    For the last 15 months, Ryan Gallagher has here been chronicling the debate around the Alternative Vote (AV) referendum for OurKingdom, the UK section of the groundbreaking openDemocracy website and forum.

  • 5 May 2011
    Can differential turnout overcome the polls and deliver a 'Yes'?

    There was a tremendously good ‘Yes to Fairer Votes’ rally last night. We sat in the raked theatre of the Royal Institution where the great 19th century experiments were tested that opened the way to the modern era. Will we be so lucky with the British voting system?

  • 5 May 2011
    'Yes, we need a better politics', say Fairer Votes campaigners

    Fairer votes campaigners from all parties and none have called upon people across Britain to vote for improving politics and to reject negativity in today's AV poll.

  • 20 Apr 2011
    Bad arguments against voting Yes: Misleading maps

    If you’ve received a leaflet from the ‘No to AV’ campaign, you may have noticed a map showing that only three countries use the Alternative Vote system. But there are lots of things the map does not show.

  • 14 Apr 2011
    Vote against the BNP by voting 'yes' to AV, say reformers

    Billy Bragg joined forces with black activist Simon Woolley on 13 April to launch a new anti-BNP poster for the 'Yes to Fairer Votes' campaign.

  • 5 Apr 2011
    Alternative Vote would boost power of average voter, says NEF

    Independent analysis from think-tank NEF (the New Economics Foundation) has shown that AV would give a significant boost to the power of the average voter.

  • 3 Apr 2011
    Yes on 5 May means challenging 'business as usual', says campaign

    "I don't want to wake up after 5 May and find out it’s business as usual at Westminster," said Eddie Izzard at the official launch of Yes to Fairer Votes.