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AV: Wrestling in Leotards
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The battle over the Alternative Vote has reached whole new levels of bitchiness and in-fighting amongst the coalition government. I always imagine it's like those American wrestling competitions, with oversized bearded men in leotards staging drop-kicks to make the audience believe they hate each other, when really they're being paid by the same people and, when you peel away the leotard, are essentially identical.
Does anyone really believe that MPs on the front benches are genuinely angry at those who have a different opinion on whether AV is a good or bad idea? Isn't this all pantomime? Nick Clegg infamously told David Cameron in March: “If we keep doing this we won’t have anything to bloody disagree on in the bloody TV debates.”
Perhaps other Lib Dem MPs are genuinely worried about the vote; after all, something real is at stake: it's unlikely the Lib Dems will be part of a ruling government again unless the electorate votes 'yes' to AV. After all, they only got in this time because disaffected Labour voters voted for the Lib Dems because they thought they were the best of a bad bunch. Of course the weaker party is going to support AV - they aren't going to be elected any other way.
Doesn't this provide the strongest argument against AV? If the Lib Dems or Labour aren't strong enough to be elected on their own merit, why would anyone want them as a coalition government? Perhaps they should work on winning back voters' trust.
Ultimately, the only people who are particularly interested in the Alternative Vote - or even understand what's going on - are politicians. The advertising campaigns are brilliantly confusing, no one really knows whether it'll be fairer or not, and ultimately, it'll come down to how a small handful of voters feel based upon very little useful information. MPs would probably be better off donning leotards and staging an elaborate fight for the electorate's vote.
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