This week in the House we have seen what is known as ‘Parliamentary ping pong.’
The Commons votes on a measure and sends it to the Lords. They deliberate and return it to the Commons, perhaps with amendments.
The Commons votes on those amendments and returns it to the Lords. And so on, until agreement is reached.
But the problem is that ‘The Parliamentary Voting and Constituencies Bill’ is a keystone of the Coalition agreement.
It has taken 17 long weeks. Labour peers have ‘filibustered,’ talking the Bill out of time in the Lords. Normally, this would not be an issue.
The Bill allows for a national referendum on May 5th to decide upon whether to change our voting system from First Past the Post to the Alternative Vote (AV).
And if it had not passed this week, the referendum could not have taken place in May.
The AV referendum was demanded by the Lib Dems in exchange for their agreement to join the Conservatives in forming a Government.
They see it as a step to the proportional representation they passionately desire.
They believe it will give them more power in future governments.
I, for one, hope fervently that it will not succeed.
To me, there is something fundamentally wrong with the way that AV works.
Voters rank the parties in order of preference. If one party does not immediately win 50% of the vote, the least successful is eliminated and their second preference votes redistributed until there is a clear winner.
This immediately skews the result in favour of the smaller, less successful parties.
I envisage a future where coalitions of many, smaller parties becomes the norm.
If that sounds inviting, just look at Italy.
Every law passed is a political fix. Voters have less say. Manifesto promises are dumped. Accountability doesn’t exist.
Just remember that this drastic constitutional change was offered to appease the party that came third at the general election.
Worse, there is no minimum turnout threshold, so a tiny proportion of voters could change our electoral system forever.
It seems completely undemocratic.
I will be voting no.