[We interrupt your Women’s History Month schedule for a public service announcement on electoral reform.]
I was unimpressed with Councillor Terence Paul’s contribution to the electoral reform debate. In a piece which is frankly insulting to the intelligence of voters – BME or otherwise – Mr Paul questions Operation Black Vote’s support of the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign. With choice quotes from Nick Griffin, Mr Paul raises the spectre of bus-loads of BNP MPs, all in our Parliament thanks to the Alternative Vote.
Leaving aside the questionable underlying premise that people whose views we find distasteful should not be represented, the argument the Councillor makes is still tenuous. It tries to create a false equivalence between the Alternative Vote and Proportional Representation by claiming, among other things, that the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign would like the former to become a stepping stone for the latter. So let’s get our facts straight.
Firstly, the Alternative Vote and Proportional Representation are not one and the same thing. Even the No to AV campaign goes to great lengths to point this out, in an attempt to divide and conquer pro-reform voters.
Secondly, neither the Yes To Fairer Votes nor the No to AV campaign have an official position on Proportional Representation. What is on the table on May 5th is a choice between First Past the Post and the Alternative Vote, and this is what the campaign is all about. Claiming that the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign wants AV to be a stepping stone to PR is a bit like claiming that everyone in the No campaign wants to keep FPTP – it is simply not true.
Thirdly – and this is the really important bit – the British National Party is actively campaigning against the Alternative Vote. Does this look to you like the action of a party which believes it will massively benefit from a change to AV?
I find it a constant source of amusement how the No campaign continues to rely on the bogeyman of the BNP for its scare tactics, while at the same time being supported by them. What is even more ludicrous are the repeated attempts to square the circle by scaring us with the prospect of the BNP in Parliament, while keeping supporters of other small parties on side. Here is my favourite quote from the No to AV website:

“AV ensures that the BNP will gain more votes and more legitimacy, while not giving any help to small parties like the Green Party.”

Quite how this will be achieved is never explained.
I, for one, have had enough of the No campaign’s attempts to create fear, uncertainty and doubt, enough of lies, half-truths and bad arguments. I believe voters deserve our respect, and to be treated as intelligent human beings. Arguments like Terence Paul’s simply don’t wash.
What is on the table are not bus-loads of BNP MPs but a small change to our voting system which will make a big difference for voters. It will give us a stronger voice and give MPs an incentive to work harder to represent us all. You can vote for that, or you can vote to keep first-past-the-post, the system which keeps MPs in jobs so safe that some of them don’t even bother to hold a surgery in their constituency.
Whichever way you choose to vote, I hope it’s on the basis of facts and truth, rather than fear.