Ribble Valley Conservatives executive has voted to join to join the No to AV campaign at last Friday's meeting . The decision was taken overwhelmingly by the committee on the urging constituency MP Nigel Evans. The Association covers all the Ribble Valley and about a quarter of the South Ribble Borough and right across the area the campaign will be launched .
Ken Hind ,vice chairman commented ''On May 5th, there's a nationwide referendum on whether to replace the system of First Past the Post with the 'Alternative Vote' - or AV. The Liberal Democrats demanded this referendum as part of the Coalition agreement - but the Conservative Party are actively campaigning for a 'No' vote. Here's why: - AV is unfair. With First Past the Post, everybody gets one vote. But under AV, supporters of extreme parties like the BNP would get their vote counted many times, while other people's vote would only be counted once.
- AV doesn't work. Rather than the candidate with the most votes winning, the person who finishes third could be declared the winner.
- AV is expensive. Calculating the results is a long, complicated process, which would cost the taxpayer millions.
- No-one wants AV. Even the 'Yes' campaigners don't actually want AV - they see it as a convenient stepping stone to yet more changes to how we vote. This could be one of the most major decisions taken in British democracy since entering the EU.
''We join with 150 Labour MP's and a number of other parties in seeking to reject this change in electing representatives at all levels .Despite LIberal democrat support it has been described by Nick Clegg as'' a miserable little compromise'' during the general election . It is only used in 3 countries in the world Papua and New Guinea, Fiji and Australia .Many others have looked at it and rejected it as it leads to to weak government and election of everyone's second or third choice.'' |