Alternative Vote

Obviously Parliament voted in favour of a referendum on AV. Were they right?

I am strongly in favour of PR for all sorts of reasons - most notably that I think it is fairer system and is clearly more representative, but AV could be even more disproportionate.

However, on balance I would support AV as it gives voters a chance to list candidates in the order they would want them. So where I live Labour have almost no chance of getting in, but under AV voting for them would not be a wasted vote. I could vote Labour then Lib Dem or Green and then almost everyone before the BNP.

But Brown's conversion at such a late stage does owe more than a little to political opportunism. Labour should have adopted AV+ or AMS or best still STV a decade ago.