If Nick Clegg genuinely wants this referendum to be broad based, cross party and wants this coalition period to usher in more plural politics - he must split the bill.
Our guest writer is Andy May, national coordinator of Take Back Parliament
With the referendum nine months away some may see arguments over the composition of a parliamentary bill as quibbling over formality and an unwelcome distraction. Unfortunately it’s more important than many people seem to realise – there is plenty of urgent work that needs doing to prepare the ‘Yes’ campaign.
But however much practical preparation on the ground is done the key thing is popular – and cross party – support for change. The Liberal Democrats must recognise that this bill is too important to be hamstrung by their Conservative coalition partner’s insistence that it must be combined with boundary changes.
The problem with the referendum bill as it stands is that it is married to the boundary review, a piece of legislation which is important enough to be a wholly separate entity. Splitting the bill would ensure that the bill is passed with the support and consent of the whole electoral reform movement – not just the Lib Dem contingent of it. By including hurried but far reaching boundary change legislation the Lib Dem leadership risks jeopardising the goodwill of Labour and Welsh and Scots nationalist electoral reformers.
John Denham, the well respected chair of the Labour Campaign for Electoral Reform has already laid out his case for the reformists within the Labour party for opposing the AV referendum bill whilst supporting a referendum.
As he states there are some legitimate concerns around the way this bill is being presented. Although I don’t think it’s fair to call it outright gerrymandering he makes some good points. More work needs to be done to ensure individual voter registration is effectively and rapidly implemented.
And crucially any new boundary review based on the electoral roll and reducing constituency size risks skewing the electoral map by ignoring the 3.5 million unregistered voters residing mainly in less affluent urban areas. Stuart Wilks Heeg outlines these problems comprehensively in his Open Democracy piece.
The bottom line is that this is a controversy of the coalition’s own making – or rather a concession to the Tory part of it. The boundary legislation is extremely divisive, messy and an unwelcome distraction from what should be a clear timetable for a referendum on electoral reform presented in one bill. Given this area of reform is being billed by Nick Clegg as one of the most important compromises granted to the Lib Dems as a condition of coalition the passage of the bill should be conducted under their terms.
However much Nick Clegg may feel that Labour are being unfair to call it gerrymandering he should also recognise that it was a mistake to give in to Tory demands to combine the legislation. That mistake should be rectified by a separate vote on the referendum and boundary changes.
If he genuinely wants this referendum to be broad based, cross party and wants this coalition period to usher in more plural politics – he must split the bill.
62 Responses to “The AV referendum bill should stand alone – not shoehorned in with boundary changes”
dave
funny, on the one hand the article declares the issue of elecotral reform to important to mess about with and then on the other passes the blaime for the labour party trying to block it. people own their own actions. labour leadership, this as you say is too important to mess about with so when push comes to shove support the people no matter what and support the bill instead of making up feable excuses (equal size constituencies are not exactly gerrymandering proposals) to use the populations chance of elecotral reform to political point score.this is obviously what you are doing (un-ess you secretly don’t what av of course) and people are not stupid enough to fall for it. anyone would think that after your 13 years in power when you could have adopted av, and then your noises that you will used some crap excuse to block it the first chance you get,you are as corrupt as the tories. stick to your manifesto – back the peoples campaign for fair votes. people will respect your maturity and progressiveness if you do.
richard heathcote
i think if it was a bill on just av it would probably get passed without problem but this isnt its a bill that is part av and part boundry changes, why should labour help pass a bill that is not part of the manifesto it doesnt say anything in the labour manifesto about support for boundry changes this is the issue and they are right to object to it. the boundry changes are more favourable to the tories which is why they are trying to introduce them in this way. i think nick clegg should stand up for his values and say the bill needs to be split to allow a fair vote on just the av change. the other thing i would say is as it is ok for the coalition to deviate from their election manifesto as they have seen all the facts why is it unacceptable for the labour party to have reservations on av as it is more likely to bring a result of more hung parliaments which given the condem alliance as a result of the last election doesnt really favour labour as the lib dems have proved to be more right wing then thought so making hung parliament and coalitions less likely with labour.
Anon E Mouse
Andy May – The Tories will vote for this to support the Lib Dem’s and once it’s passed voters in Tory marginals will put the Lib Dem’s as second preference and the same in Lib Dem marginals.
The Labour Party should fear AV, especially with the electoral timing being fixed at 2015 and I think that Cameron wants to change the Conservative Party to grab disillusioned Blair supporters next time round.
After Gordon Brown’s push for AV in the last Parliament it will make Labour look really bad if they come up with some excuse for not supporting this bill…
Sunder Katwala
RT @leftfootfwd: The AV referendum bill should stand alone – not shoehorned in with boundary changes http://bit.ly/bieAXu
Martin Deane
RT @leftfootfwd: The AV referendum bill should stand alone – not shoehorned in with boundary changes http://bit.ly/bieAXu