Play To Win

No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.
-Winston Churchill, House of Commons, 1947

Referenda are few and far between amongst the representative democracies because as we all know there is nothing more undemocratic that consulting the population. The last was in 1997 (Devolution in Scotland and Wales) and only fourteen years later has the government seen fit to poll the electorate outside a general election rather than make these big decisions for you. The question put to the populace on Thursday is really 'which of these systems is the least worst form of election in our least worst form of government?' When framed this way the answer is obviously Yes to Alternative Vote. I'm not going to reprint all the reasons to vote YES, rather I want to take on the alarmist claim that AV will let the BNP in.

It goes without saying the the BNP are reprehensible (do your own research), but the way I keep hearing warnings about AV being the back door that will let the BNP into parliament are precisely undemocratic. It is the right of every eligible voter to cast their nomination how they see fit. If some racists want to vote for Nick Griffin and his stooges that is their right. If the Labour Party (whom I hear this claim from the most) have a problem with that then perhaps they should be out there convincing people not to vote BNP rather than attempt to stifle peoples' democratic right. Don't tell me there's no point in debating with the racists, otherwise there's no point in debating with anyone and all political stances are intractable - which can't be true given the number of times Churchill crossed the floor.

There is an obvious disparity between constituency representation and nationwide proportional representation. There is no easy way to fix this which is why I call AV the least worst option. Of course there should be one vote for every voter, but equally there should not be a single victorious party that gets less votes than all the other contenders combined. You can't call it a representative democracy and not have parliament come close to representing the numbers. Having even more professional politicians isn't the way I'd like it - I can just see them voting through their own pay rises - but it's the best option from a limited choice of not really perfect systems. No wonder apathy is at an all time high.

My own negative view of large population indirect democracy would preclude me from voting in the Scottish Parliament election also on Thursday. At the same time; the worst move a citizen can make is not voting, versus voting for the loser (win-lose) and voting for the winner (win-win). Despite my own complex and extensive political viewpoint which I continue to detail on this blog, I'm not a member of a political party nor do I identify with a party. I might be my own worst nightmare - the swing voter. When it was viable I voted for the Scottish Socialist Party, but their own spectacular implosion has burned that bridge. Although the next closest are the Greens (left, pro-independence), whom I voted for in 2007 if my memory serves me, I wasn't particularly sure where I stood in the Scottish Parliament anymore. I came across the Scottish Vote Compass via Doctorvee, and according to it my best match are indeed the Greens (48%) followed by the SNP (33%). However the compass image that accompanies the result confusingly has me next to the SNP:

Now that a machine has instructed me, I know what I must do.

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