electoral reform

Everyone loves a bit of that, don't they? No.
It's one of things most people outside proper politics geeks (e.g. me) hate. It bores them shitless. Fair enough.
Ben Bradshaw has stuck his head about the parapet to criticise Gordy for a 'missed opportunity'.
I'd like to see more done on this, but at the end of the day people don't really care about it, so nothing much happens.

"Brown was quite explicit in his conference speech.

There is now a stronger case than ever that MPs should be elected with the support of more than half their voters – as they would be under the alternative voting system. And so I can announce today that in Labour's next manifesto there will be a commitment for a referendum to be held early in the next parliament. It will be for the people to decide whether they want to move to the alternative vote.

That sounds pretty unambiguous. Cast-iron, you might even say. Brown can't change his mind now without being accused of performing an extraordinary U-turn.

I don't want to make a big deal of this, because I'm all in favour of ministers behaving like intelligent grown-ups and saying what they think, but it's still worth noting that there's a split here."
There's a disagrement about a minor thing no-one really cares about, hardly a "split".
And hardly surprising ministers are reluctant to speak out as when they do it's a "split".
But that's another story, so i've buried it at the bottom.


"Interestingly, though, the government is considering including a "paving bill" for a referendum in the Queen's speech. This would commit the government to holding a referendum on electoral reform at some point in the future (but not on the day of the general election). If such a bill were to become law, a future Tory government would either have to hold a referendum or repeal the legislation."
That'd be good.