Alternative Vote is “even less proportional” than status quo

Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that there would be a commitment in the next Labour manifesto to hold a referendum on changing the electoral system for Westminster to one that uses the “Alternative Vote” method. But it is not a proportional system and can actually be less proportional than our current First Past the Post system.

Government should listen to its advisers on drugs policy

There is an interesting story in today’s Independent, flagged in Left Foot Forward’s Politics Summary, which reports that a group of government-appointed drug experts are to call for a nationwide network of “shooting galleries” to provide injectable heroin for drug addicts following successful trials. The current Government is on record many times insisting that their policies will be based as far as possible on evidence. In the area of drugs policy, however, there have been two recent occasions when the government has gone against their own advisory body.