Campaign Blog

Enter Rupert

After everything The Sun had to say about the possibility of a hung parliament we're hardly suprised by their reaction to news of our referendum.

Today's edition of the red top leads with the supposed price tag of the AV vote, and the not so suprising fact recession hit voters aren't that keen on spending millions. Funny that, we didn't detect any hostility coming from Wapping over the cost of a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. But then consistency is overrated.

Sadly for Rupert even their poll shows 7 out of 10 voters want it. Great news for reformers, bad news for Media Barons. It's very clear that we've got some powerful foes. The referendum will cost money to administer (but then May 2011 also happens to have a few other elections - in every part of Britain save London - that might keep overheads down) but it will also cost money to win. The sad fact is we face an uphill struggle. The no campaign can benefit from free publicity from a largely hostile mass media, and the likely support of plenty of high rolllers currently targeted by the Lynton Crosby run No Camp. Plenty have a vested interest in the status quo at Westminster and are prepared to pay for it.

We're relying on the generosity of our supporters to let the Yes Campaign hit the ground running. So if you can spare a couple of quid donate at http://voteforachange.co.uk/ActNow

A win at the referendum won't come for free. But seeing the state of Westminster it's easy to see why a little work on the foundations of our democracy is a pretty shrewd investment http://voteforachange.co.uk/ActNow

We’ve Got it!

Circle May 5th 2011 in your diary. We’ve got ourselves a referendum.

News broke yesterday that Nick Clegg was ready to announce a referendum next week.

Suddenly “next week” turned into Friday, as the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10483841.stm weighed in, and Twitter and Facebook started lighting up with speculation.

It’s calming down now. The facts are that we’re still waiting on the formalities - the big set piece speech - but we’ve got a timetable, less than 12 months away.

This is a huge victory in our fight to fix our broken politics, and it’s thanks to you that we’ve won it. All the petitions, all the pressure we’ve put on our leaders these past months – it’s all paid off.

But – and maybe you guessed I was about to say this! – our work isn’t done.

The No Camp has started its work,  Australia’s answer to Karl Rove, Lynton Crosby is on board, and they’ve started fundraising. Sadly, as we discovered in our campaign for a hung parliament, the status quo has some pretty powerful friends in the media and big business.

Today, we won a battle for a referendum on electoral reform. But today is when our fight for a “YES” vote begins. Please pitch in today to help fund it:

http://voteforachange.co.uk/ActNow

This past May, thousands of us voted with our heads, not our hearts, to deliver this chance for reform.

Before next May, we’ve got to do everything we can to make sure our fellow voters join us in taking that chance – so none of us ever have to compromise our principles at the ballot box again.

You know better than anyone that our victory today didn’t just happen. We made it happen through months of hard campaigning. The same is true of next May’s referendum: we’ll only achieve a YES vote if we work for it, full stop.

Can you pitch in now? No matter what you can afford, your donation will make a difference:

http://voteforachange.co.uk/ActNow

Thanks again for everything you've done.

Give us a date

Another Queen's Speech is upon us. And another missed opportunity.

This coalition has agreed - in principle - to deliver a referendum on the voting system. But the devil is always in the detail - or the lack of it.

Her Majesty processed to parliament yesterday, to unveil the coalitions legislative programme. Those assembled were left guessing as to the date of the vote.

To sidestep the date of the referendum in the coalition agreement was unfortunate. To skip over it in the Queen’s Speech looks like carelessness.

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/Timetable

The date of the referendum is a big deal. Labour won in 1997 promising a referendum it never delivered. We appreciate many Conservatives aren't thrilled at the prospect of a new voting system, but delaying isn't the way to win the argument. The Tories may have shot down the last government’s referendum bill in wash-up, but today they really don’t want to give their coalition partners or the public the impression they would like to see voting reform kicked voting reform into the long grass.

The Referendum Bill is a very straightforward piece of legislation. They can fish the amendments to the Constitutional Renewal Bill out the dustbin if they need any pointers. Only a clear timetable can make this Reform Act great.

We hear that Cameron's Lib Dem partners are pressing for May 2011. Good on them. But we're sending our own message to the PM.

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/Timetable

The Tories and Lib Dems have put pay to the hung parliament myths (many of them from the Tories themselves) that coalitions are a disaster waiting to happen. We've got what looks like a mature government. And a mature government doesn't hide from its own commitments.

What a week!

What a week. Well together we've managed to hang parliament and forced David and Nick to work together . This gave us the opportunity we had been looking for.

The talks between parties where the best chance to apply pressure for a referendum on reform.

So thats is what we did with our partner organisations under the banner Take Back Parliament. 

We helped organise the fantastic demo on sat you mave seen it on the news. We ve put sustained pressure on the key decision makers not to back down on reform.The call for "Fair Votes Now!" is now being heard in cities across the UK.

We have a hung parliament. The rivers haven't turedn to blood, the country hasn't been attacked by Iran suggested.  We have a coalition government backed for the first time in generations by more than half the voters and the last timed we checked the sky hasn't fallen.

And guess what the new government has agreed to have a referendum on voting reform.

Now we have to keep up the pressure to make sure they do what they say they are going to and do it as soon as possible so were hitting the street again on Saturday all overthe country - thousands have signed up so come and join them click here to find out if theres a demo near you

http://www.takebackparliament.com/page/s/changenow

Adding a little X-Factor to May 6th

Today Simon Cowell warns Sun readers about "months of stupid arguments and then a dull compromise".

It’s hard to know if he’s talking hung parliaments or the next series of X-Factor, but either way voters are seeing through the myths.

We’re used to being patronised by politicians and the press, but with 24 hours to go they’re pulling out all the stops. Elder statesmen offer us sermons, telling us we should vote to serve their interests. Ken Clark tells us we’re ‘ridiculous’. Tony Blair says its simple: ‘vote for what you believe in.’ If only it were.

In poll after poll voters are demonstrating they’ve had enough of ‘we know what’s good for you’ lectures. Voters want a hung parliament. They won’t find it as an option on any ballot paper, but the web is filling that vacuum. And As of today over 22,000 have now pledged to use their vote to deliver a hung parliament, with potentially decisive numbers in key marginals.

We’ve had to ask more of our supporters than we’d wished. A petition won’t cut it. Twibbons, tweets and status updates are all well and good, but the biggest online activity at this election will take place in polling booths.

2010 has been dubbed the first ‘Online Election’, but while the parties have been busy tweeting to the choir ordinary voters having been using the web to deliver another kind of politics. Politicians and the press should brace themselves for a real victory for people power on Friday morning.

There's still time to add a little X-Factor to tomorrow's election

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/hangem

Scare Mongering (in briefs)

Becky is concerned. She’s concerned about a hung parliament. That and the oh so dreadful reforms that would follow in its wake.

The Vote for a Change office is getting a little cluttered with news clippings of late, trying to keep track of all the hung parliament scare mongering . It’s a busy time for the campaign, so it’s good for a laugh.

But in a new low today the Sun today used its Page 3 ‘News in Briefs’ feature to attack the very idea of a hung parliament, and its likely outcome – electoral reform. So now we hear Becky Rule has some strong opinions on the subject. Or at least the Sun subs were ordered to provide her with some.

We’re use to Media Barons putting word into the mouths of our politicians. But we wonder if Rupert Murdoch asked Becky before using her image to advance News International's agenda on the future of our democracy?

Day in day out we’re seeing propaganda peddled as journalism in the pages of the Sun and the Daily Mail. All the evidence is showing voters want a hung parliament, but still these papers demonstrate their contempt for both their readers and the voting public.

The Punch and Judy show in Westminster might make for good copy, but doesn’t make for good politics. Post expenses crisis voters are looking for consensus, not more of the same. The Murdochs and Dacres, First-Past-the-Post’s most influential Cheerleaders, might need to stop pretending they set the public mood, and try and catch up with it.

Last week former Sun Editor David Yelland wrote in The Guardian about how ‘the pro Cameron press’ is prepared to play dirty in defence of its ‘chosen’ party.

The Damascene convert wrote:“the fact is these papers, and others, decided months ago that Cameron was going to win. They are now invested in his victory in the most undemocratic fashion.”

Well we’ve decided that voters are going to win this election. And that means delivering the one result more of us want than any other.

Bring on a hung parliament

www.voteforachange.co.uk/hangem

We can make history

Last week David Cameron's old tutor Vernon Bogdanor described the coming elections as having echoes of the “Peers versus the People” struggle at the polls 100 years ago. We doubt his old student is listening, but our campaign is all about the People Power he preached about last week when he launched his manifesto. Behind the abstractions, the pie charts, the endless parade of wonks are individual voters who don't have the power to deliver the politics of their choosing. We're asking them to work together, and to think and vote tactically.

Of course we wish voters weren't forced to vote with their heads rather than their hearts. But the logic of First-Past-the-Post often means we have to back a candidate with a realistic chance of winning to prevent a worse option. In this election voters will have to forget about individual candidates or parties and think of the big picture. Our shared goal of a hung parliament will require thousands of voters across the country to make our pledge and vote accordingly on May 6th http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/hangem

The fight for fair votes is a story of sacrifice, a story of Chartists, of Suffragettes, of ordinary people standing up to make a difference.

In 2010 some of us may find ourselves voting for a party they'd never have even contemplated supporting before. Some may wish to take a nose peg into the polling booths. We know this means sacrifice. But if we can deliver a hung parliament we're sure this will be the last time a campaign likes ours has to ask so much from its supporters.

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/hangem

Hang ‘Em

Ok. We're off.

Our Hang Parliament tool is now live, and you can pop over and take a look here:

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/hangem

With most politicians busy pressing the flesh on the campaign trail, we headed to Parliament Square with a little effigy to launch it. The BBC Campaign Show honoured us by awarding us the "Shameless Photo op of the Day". Well with the politicians kissing babies from Kent to Shetland, it's nice to get noticed.

We know the most popular option at the coming election won’t feature on any ballot paper, and that’s because most voters want a hung parliament. And until polls close on May 6th we’ll be working to make it a reality.

We’re asking likeminded people to make a pledge and to use their vote to change politics. As reformers we lament being forced to vote with our heads and not our hearts. But we believe that this can be the last time we’ll need to vote tactically. A hung parliament is a reforming parliament, and we intend to help voters across the country deliver it

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/hangem

Voters want a hung parliament. We’ll help deliver it.

We begin with a reading from the Gospel according to Tory Central office. The subject for today’s sermon is Hung Parliaments.

"It would be utterly dreadful...No one would have a clear mandate, it would be hideous, it would be hand-to-mouth and it wouldn't last very long." Eric Pickles

"I think it would be a serious problem if there was a hung parliament" William Hague

“The electorate will bring upon themselves the consequences of financial panic if they produce a hung parliament or a Labour minority government. It would be catastrophic.” Ken Clarke

“We think a hung parliament would be damaging, the uncertainty would be bad for Britain" David Cameron

Now people have to ask themselves why our politicians are so against a hung parliament. Well it’s because the big parties are all so used to unfettered power. That’s the game they play and our system usually delivers, but it’s not want voters want in 2010.

And today we hear what we’ve long suspected - that most voters would welcome a hung parliament ahead of any other outcome in the general election. After all if share of the seats in the Commons reflected share of the vote you'd have nothing but hung parliaments for over 60 years.

As election expert Professor John Curtice told the Today programme this morning that a coalition or hung parliament was “at least as popular as one party walking away with all the prizes”

It’s a shame then that the most popular option at the coming election won’t feature on any ballot paper. And that’s because the result most voters want is a hung parliament.

As reformers we lament that so many of us are forced to vote with their heads rather than the hearts. But we believe that this can be the last time we’ll need to vote tactically. A hung parliament is a reforming parliament, and we intend to help voters deliver it. Watch this space. Sign up and be the first to know.

http://www.voteforachange.co.uk/page/s/quicksignup

It’s up to us

The morning after the night before.

Yesterday Labour and Tory whips arrived at work to find over 5000 messages in their inboxes.  The message was clear. Our supporters wanted to let the cold of day into those rooms where the fate of our referendum hung in the balance.

Well maybe the calling of an election made for a day to bury bad news. Yesterday evening, as we prepared to head, news reached us that one of targets Lord Bassam, had announced that the reform referendum had died in this parliament lasp gasp of horse-trading. Despite calls from inside and outside parliament the Tories decided to go all scorched earth - threatening to veto the whole Constitutional Renewall package - and death bed converts in Labour acquiesced.

Neither party hass much to be proud of. Armed with a veto not granted them by any voter, the Conservatives have killed reform of the voting system and reform of the House of Lords. Well Cameron’s message is clear, and it isn’t change. But while it's a scandal Conservatives have been so willing to sacrifice constitutional reform to further their own prejudices, it's still ridiculous that the government chose to back down.

So where to now. Well as we've said from the very start: it's up to us.

Both big parties claim they can deliver change alone. Today Gordon Brown offers us a Democracy Day, and a future referendum on fair votes. We welcome these moves, but we’ve heard promises before, we’re still waiting. David Cameron talks change. His draft manifesto even promises “Fair Vote” reforms, but he offers nothing that might actually deliver on it, short of his party's obsession with boundary changes. 

Well we don’t have a referendum on the statute book. But our supporters still have a chance to vote for a change. A hung parliament is a reforming parliament, and that must now be the objective of anyone interested in democratic renewal. That's our objective from here on in.