Successfully building the largest grassroots democratic movement in recent history is the untold story of the AV referendum campaign, writes Katie Ghose.
Katie Ghose is the chief executive of the Electoral Reform Society
“In six months we built a machine that any political party would be envious of” – which campaign was the speaker referring to? Was it on spending cuts, healthcare reform? Surprisingly the speaker was an undergraduate talking about his recent involvement in the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign. I met him last month in Sheffield, with dozens of campaigners of all ages, from all over South Yorkshire, some long term party activists, many non-partisan.
All were angry about the referendum result and had some searing criticisms of the campaign to vent. All were passionate about continuing the fight for a better democracy and brimming over with enthusiasm for the collegiate way they worked together.
Successfully building the largest grassroots democratic movement in recent history is the untold story of the referendum.
The Yes campaign had no local or regional infrastructure and without a comparator, journalists seemed nervous or disinterested in giving column inches to a remarkable organisation that took root and grew up in a matter of months; the No side had access to the Conservative Party machine, with both the resources and skills to mobilise party activists, disseminate materials, utilise local media opportunities and target swing voters.
We owe it to future campaigners to turn our gaze away from Westminster and unearth the real story of the Yes campaign in local communities across the UK. To do this we need high quality data and robust analysis to understand a different kind of campaign, which tried to hone party political techniques whilst attempting to distance itself from politicians as an NGO-style ‘people’s campaign’.
Others say that aping party political techniques was impossible; we would never be able to rival a real party machine so should have put our scant resources elsewhere. An independent evaluation will help demonstrate if a referendum campaign can ever succeed when it has not one of the major party political machines at its disposal. But should the answer be No?
In losing the vote, we built an extraordinarily resilient movement (more than 150 groups at the last count), who are already regrouping, adapting and rebranding to be ready for the next initiative. From community assemblies, to local government reform, House of Lords and voter registration they are not short on ideas of where to deploy their energies.
They also have the benefit of experience that a poor understanding of the issues, combined with killer confusion from the No campaign meant that there was no ‘readiness for reform’. Rather than shut up shop for a generation, many groups are embracing the chance to get stuck into the big issue of public education they felt was needed in the years running up to May 5th. Working with schools, universities and community centres they hope to lay the ground for a better understanding of the problems with our politics, without which solutions are irrelevant.
No one knows when House of Commons reform will be back on the agenda, but it could be as soon as the next general election.
It is ironic that out of a bitter defeat on May 5th, we have created a standing army already intent on laying the groundwork for future success.
30 Responses to “The untold story of the AV referendum campaign”
anonymous
FPTP is defiantly not good… but AV doesn’t even touch PR…. doesn’t anyone remember pre election everyone was wanting PR… then post election its like it never happened… and then theres people wondering why a NO vote on AV happened, its no mystery really if it was a referendum on Proportional representation then who could say no to that…. it means Everyone’s vote counts… and there would be a fair representation of the country in parliament.. AV is not fair… why change from an unfair system to another unfair system…
Gareth Jones
http://tinyurl.com/3kczcgx The untold story of the #Yes2AV #referendum campaign #uk #politics
Katie Ghose still in denial about AV disaster « whywelostav
[…] https://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/07/katie-ghose-untold-story-of-av-referendum-campaign/ […]
SwainesWorld
I enjoyed the campaign enormously, and met some great people. But, Richard is bang on.
The Y2AV campaign should have been a walk over. Instead it was a text book example of how not to do it. Almost every voter I met, except Tory knuckle draggers, thought AV was worth supporting after it was correctly explained. I just didn’t get to meet all voters. Shame. Should’ve had a National campaign . . .
Sean
Delusion rather than complacency now seems to afflict the Chair of the ERS whose needs to consider her position if the notion of electoral reform is ever to be taken seriously again for years to come.
She still doesn’t realise the folly of not using the opportunity of a free mailing for every UK household, a decision which she claimed was on the grounds of being able to present a campaign which had saved money for the taxpayer.
But so rattled was she by the lies on the ‘No’ leaflet that she wasn’t able to make even this case and instead was party to the suppression of a few brave area organisers’ attempts to reverse the decision.
In short, she preached democracy but didn’t practise it in her own running of the campaign. Some on the inside have reported that she was mesmorised by James Sharkey,that there was indeed a masterplan to be unveiled in the last few weeks of the campaign – hence her ever more frantic online appeals for cash from supporters. However, this article perfectly illustrates either that she still has no intention of listening or that she doesn’t understand what ERS supporters have been telling her, which is even more serious.