The Referendum

You often hear that a vote for some parties may be a wasted vote. However the only votes that are not wasted are those that elect the winner, so the vast majority are wasted. If the number of elected representatives does not reflect the feelings of the electorate then it is not a good democracy. Our system is definitely broken and we have fewer and fewer people bothering to vote. If you want an example of how bad our system can be then take the byelection in Morecambe last October. We had a 12% turnout. If this isn't a broken system then I don't know what is.

In the next few weeks you will hear many different arguments about which way you should vote in the referendum. You will hear things like the cost of the referendum should be spent on other things. Whatever you feel about the value of spending money on a voting system compared to spending it on, say orphans, please ignore these arguments. The money has been spent. Most of all don't be fooled by the first-past-the-post serving us well - it hasn't.

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