What To Do About This Referendum

Very soon we will be heading for the polling booths to do (in general terms) two things.

First we will all be voting in the Council elections and making damn sure those shabby LibDems feel our wrath by voting them into oblivion. I don’t say this because I think it’s fair as a general principle; whilst I hate their smug stupidity as they vote through dogmatic Tory cuts which have absolutely nothing to do with balancing the books and everything to do with getting back to the Thatcher agenda, I do not feel they deserve to be sent onto the naughty step and left to rot there simply because they are politically inept.

Second, we will be telling the government whether we want to change the voting system from FPTP (first past the post) to AV (alternative vote). The new system being specifically designed to give the LibDems the foothold into government that their share of the vote in the last few General Elections shows they deserve.

So here’s the dilemma. If we had been asked about electoral reform at any time in the last ten years the change would have got a resounding thumbs up – everybody felt the LibDems were being very shabbily treated by the FPTP system and, what was more, they seemed the sort of chaps who would do a very good job of balancing the excesses of the other two who seemed to be heading further and further to the edges of their respective political beliefs.

But now, through a weird act of fate, they have been given the chance, ahead of the vote, to show us how good they are. After years of shouting about their principles and how they would manage this sceptre’d isle for the good of us all, we have now seen the truth of what they can do. The fact is nobody is fooled anymore by the stuff about how big a mess labour left; recent surveys show nobody is buying that anymore – people now see the cuts for what they are, Tory dogma made real and Thatcher’s policies being reimposed upon the country. There is no doubt that the LibDems have managed to temper some of the more ridiculous policies but they have failed utterly to stop the excesses and, more significantly, the grasping voices of the universally hated Oliver Letwin and his far right cabal.

So here’s the problem. My head says go for AV; it’s fair and it is more representative – my heart says vote NO, keep what we have and stuff the LibDems for showing us how their lust for power has over-ridden their principles.

Somebody once says “When the power of love exceeds the love of power the world will see peace”. Nick Clegg – think about it!

Head or heart? What to do...........................