So No to AV have accused Yes to AV of air brushing out a black celebrity from their leaflets see here.
This is because black poet Benjamin Zephaniah was not on some pro AV leaflets in some parts of country.
The "Yes to AV" campaign used his picture on literature used in London but featured the actor and time team presenter Tony Robinson in the West country. I'm informed by AV supporter Andrew Emmerson that 'The leaflets were changed to put more local celebrities to local areas, hence why Tony robinson went on West country leaflets'. Yes to AV also state that there are to many celebrities endorsing Yes to AV to have them all on the same leaflet.
This maybe the case and it's clear that Yes to AV is not a racist campaign. However in this day and age perhaps they should of simply included all the celebrities on all the leaflets, even if this meant smaller pictures because in these days of PC politics Yes to AV should really know better.
It's a shame that even a referendum on how we vote for our politicians has to decent in smears and scare stories rather than arguing out the various facts and detail behind AV and FPTP.
I'm concerned that this is what will happen with AV. The leading parties in each constituency will alter their policies and priorities depending on which minor party's voters might give them their second choice vote.
ReplyDeleteThis is no improvement on first-past-the-post. I believe that PR is the only fair electoral system; do away with the constituencies and give a lot more power to local councillors. If coalition governments are judged to be unworkable or undesirable, a system of majoritarian proportional representation can be used.
Here is a good explanation of what's involved for anyone who is undecided or is just tired of all the mud-slinging:
ReplyDeletehttp://gowers.wordpress.com/2011/04/20/is-av-better-than-fptp/
This is the wrong argument;the question should be:"Should we have referendums to decide important issues".The answer should of course be "yes" because that would be true democracy.We could then have debates on important issues such as Membership of the EU;Immigration;Whether or not the Government should reduce spending and to what level;Correct application of the UN Charter on asylum seekers;Ownership of Railways;Ownership of Energy production.
ReplyDelete