"The Big Questions"


This is a live weekly moral and religious discussion on BBC1 TV. I recommend you to watch the next one at 10.00 a.m. on Sunday 9 May as one of the questions will be about electoral reform in the aftermath of the general election. A representative from STV Action will take part.

"What's so special about 'my' MP?"


That is the title of an excellent article by the Electoral Reform Society's Chief Executive, Ken Ritchie, in The Independent. You can see it, and comments on it, at http://opinion.independentminds.livejournal.com/1955077.html You can also post your own comments.

Could the Lib Dems secure STV in a balanced parliament?

You can see my article on this subject in Lib Dem Voice: http://www.libdemvoice.org/. Much will depend on how hard they try. It is highly regrettable that Nick Clegg is reported to have said he would not insist on electoral reform of any sort, let alone STV.

STV's unique advantages


With PR on the political agenda now as never before, let's remind ourselves of some of STV's advantages, many of them unique:
Only STV provides People Representation as opposed to the mere Party Representation that other PR systems provide.
Only STV makes MPs really accountable to voters and that includes accounting for their attitude to claiming expenses.
Only STV gives voters a choice between candidates of the same party.
Only STV can provide proportionality of divisions other than party divisions.
Only STV allows voters to choose the particular candidates they believe best represent their individual views (not just on party support but also on policy matters, topical issues and preferences on moral and gender grounds).
With STV, most voters would have helped elect an MP with whom they could identify.
Unlike AV+ and AMS, there is only one class of MP with STV.
STV avoids split voting and reduces wasted votes.

"Electoral dysfunction"


This is the title of an article in New Scientist of 1 May. Although it is a thoughtful article which you will probably find interesting, it ignores STV, so you may care to write to the Editor about the astonishing omission. It refers to preferential voting but describes only AV. It describes PR as "... a party is awarded a number of parliamentary seats in direct proportion to the number of people who voted for it" and then explains the disadvantages of list systems as though they applied to all PR systems.

More STV news

I draw your attention to www.stvAction.org.uk which contains much material relevant to STV not to be found on any other site. I hope you find it interesting and useful.

Electoral reform news generally

There is a lot of news about electoral reform now and there will probably be more if, as expected, the election result does not reflect the votes. You can set up your own Google Alert for news of electoral reform or, indeed, any other subject.

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Do please use the link near the top of this newsletter to tell me your views on its contents or on any other aspect of STV.