Campaign Blog

And the award for best voting system goes to…

Anyone up very late last night, hoovering away at the toffee popcorn might have caught a wee victory for voting reform.

Late last night saw The Hurt Locker walk away with the Best Picture Oscar, after Academy Voters broke with First-Past-the-Post and backed preferential voting.

We reported on this back in September. Then Academy’s president Tom Sherak said that preferential voting was essential to choose the best picture candidate “with the strongest support of a majority of our electorate.” And we couldn’t have put it better – although not just for film, but with the MPs we all have to live with.

The Hurt Locker beat off a glitzy big budget campaign from 3D Blockbuster Avatar, and was widely rated by critics as the stronger picture. Don’t want to offend any Avatards, but Rotten Tomatoes says as much. We checked.

A decent Best Picture needs a decent voting system. The Academy ditched First-Past-the-Post – a system that could have handed Best Picture Oscar to a movie on barely a tenth of the vote, and backed the Alternative Vote. They wanted a serious movie with a serious mandate. And our oh so easily star struck politicians might want to remember that.

With a General Election campaign in the offing, the main parties may have glitz and massive budgets, but voters are prepared to reward substance. Well, that’s if they’ve got a voting system that gives actually let’s them.

PS: The Daily Telegraph got the wrong end of the stick about this last week.

They claimed that “Hollywood has become embroiled in a row ahead of the Oscars over a new 'transferable vote' system which critics claim could mean the award for best picture could go to a film with just 11 per cent of the vote”.

Sorry guys, that’s the ridiculous system we use to elect our MPs. And the system the Oscar’s were wise to get rid of.

Oh Lordy!

The Times reports today that the Tories are targeting Lord Ashcroft’s millions at 1 in 500 voters in marginal seats at the coming election. Well done them for proving our point that the money follows the few voters that matter in our general elections.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7050387.ece

There’s been a lot of talk about Ashcroft’s moola in recent days. And today we’re asking why people such as him, will be able to stand in the way of our efforts to modernize the only half way democratic chamber in our Parliament.

We’re asking our supporters to write to Lord Strathclyde, Tory leader in the Lords, asking him not to stand in the way of reform.

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

After all this Constitutional Renewal Bill can only deliver on its rather grand sound name by delivering the amendment our elected (albeit badly elected) representatives backed in the Commons - with provisions for a referendum on the voting system, and a shake up of the very rule book of politics.

Let’s make sure the Lords know it’s not their place to stand in the way of reform.

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

P.S. Some supporters may have received an email today erroneously describing Lord Ashcroft as a ‘hereditary’ peer. Alas typos set in when you work late into the night, but we wanted to fess up, and set the record straight.

To clarify - while hereditary peerages were rewards for smashing a few Saxon heads circa 1066, life peerages in this case are rewards for helping buy a few marginal seats circa 2001. Thanks!

Vote for Change?

A text message from a local supporter arrives as we as we pulled into Brighton. It seems the Tories have issued their election rallying cry: 'Vote for Change'

We spent the day flyering Tory conference delegates and keeping up with loads of interest from the assembled cameras. Our very own masked David Cameron waving a placard reading ‘How do you Spell Chnage? placard spent a good portion of the day scratching his chin outside the venue.

We’ll be honest. We found the choice of slogan amusing. The reactions we got from delegates on voting reform were variations on "Change? NEVER!"

Vote for Change is a nice message, but millions of Cameron's own voters won't be able to because of where they live. May have a bit more relevance if your lucky enough to live in a marginal seat mind...

Cameron's asking us to Vote for a Change, while endorsing a system that ensures most of us won't ever get that chance. Wish he'd make up his mind.

How can most Britons vote for change when this election will be determined by the actions of a handful of voters in marginal seats? Millions of Tory voters in Wales and Scotland and our inner cities won’t get this chance. Lord Ashcroft’s money is already chasing the few voters that matter. Change means giving us all a vote that counts, not just relentless targeting of swing voters - but that’s one change Cameron won’t accept.

The Conservatives seems intent on holding on to a bankrupt political rulebook, with sights trained and cheque book ready to woo a quarter of a million in the marginals. Cameron’s got it wrong on voting reform, and even his own voters think so. Voters want a debate. Conservative supporters want a debate. But David Cameron doesn’t. Until he's prepared to listen to his own supporters Vote for No Change is a more apt slogan.

Welcome to Witney

Well thanks to the thousands of supporters who voted in our Cameron billboard challenge today the campaign headed out West with a little message on a very large truck for the attention of one David Cameron MP.

So we parked up outside his constituency office in the Witney, Oxfordshire, a seat so safe it’s not changed hands in an election for a century.

When we hit the streets we quickly understood that Witney is not quite as ‘safe’ as it seems. At the last election Cameron enjoyed support of barely a third of his constituents, and less than half of those who actually bothered to vote – the normal state of affairs for our MPs with our crude winner takes all elections.

Most people in Witney, as with most people in Britain, didn’t want their MP. And at the bus stop, on the high street, and in the Market Square they weren’t afraid to tell us. But today we decided to focus on that minority of Cameron voters.

In recent weeks we’ve been gathering evidence. We had asked the people at YouGov to speak to voters across the country. We wanted to know what voters – of all parties – really thought about our call for a referendum, particularly the ones David claims to speak for.

The facts are that Cameron’s got it wrong on reform. And even Tory voters think so.



Voters want a debate. Conservative supporters want a debate. But David Cameron it seems doesn’t. He needs to have a little more faith in his arguments and in the common sense of the voting public.

This argument can’t be won by stifling this debate. And it won’t be won by the sort of disinformation Conservative Central Office has been peddling on the Internet. It will be won by making a compelling case to voters, and giving them the final verdict at a referendum.

Next week the referendum bill is back in the Commons, and in a matter of weeks we face a new barrier – The House of Lords. Barons, Dukes and Earls will have a vote that counts, and Cameron shouldn’t let his friends in that Medieval Chamber stop our chance to update a Victorian one.

Video's over on Youtube, snaps up on Facebook.

Well got to rush. It's a dozen odd Tory seats between Witney and Brighton, where we've got an appointment to keep with Tory Spring Conference.

Sporting a Tache

Well the winner – hands down – of our billboard vote sees Mr Cameron sporting a rather lovely moustache. In a collision of two iconic posters, David Cameron meets Lord Kitchener, for a meditation on trust.

Cameron needs our votes to be our next Prime Minister, but he’s not prepared to give us a say on the future of your democracy. As our supporters chose to highlight trust is a two-way street. David wants YOU! He just doesn’t trust YOU, or at least that’s the message his party is putting out so effectively with their opposition to a referendum.

We want voters to decide the way forward for politics. We credit them with an opinion on how they hire their MPs.

The winner got us thinking back to last year. The month dubbed Movember was a happy time for the campaign. As we soldiered on to get reform up the governments agenda, three of our team decided to look like idiots for a whole month in the name of charity.

Well David Cameron doesn’t need a tache. If he’s feeling charitable he just might want to consider offering his voters a choice.

You can have a gander at the finished article here…

One Vote that will Count

Ok – so we’re down to our final 3. Today we’re asking our supporters to identifying the billboard we’ll be taking to Witney for a wee visit to David Cameron’s office.

Over 500 really good ideas, and with our final three we've tried to reflect the diversity of the entries.

So we’ve got Conservatives harping on about money wasted on a referendum. Well we revisit the glory days of the expenses crisis as Dave reflects on his Wisteria problem while denying you the right to choose a better politics.

Lord Kitchener graces one entry we received on the subject of faith. Dave wants YOU to help to be our next PM. Yes he trusts your judgement that far – but no further it seems. He’s not prepared to give you a choice, and that’s the key element - choice – on the future of your democracy.

And there’s the next barrier we face – The House of Lords. Unelected Peers will all have a vote that really counts when the referendum bill goes to the vote. We need to know that Cameron isn’t going to give us yet another reason to embrace Lords Reform by letting one medieval chamber block the modernisation of a Victorian one. So we doff our caps - or should that be Coronets - to an image of Lord Cameron. 

The theme that’s run through most of the entries is ‘Change’. Cameron talks a great deal about it, but we need evidence he’s prepared to act on change, where it counts.

Anyhoo, get voting, and here’s how:

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

PS: Owing to a bug the voting page wasn't displaying properly in some versions of Internet Explorer, leaving voters with only one option. That's the choice we expect from Westminster elections - not Vote for a Change - so all fixed and awaiting your vote.

Pickles’ Porky Pies invade Internet

It’s been pretty hard to avoid a lesson from Eric Pickles today. But in place of a school room he’s got Tory Campaign Headquarters. And in place of the facts we’ve got Porky Pies.

Conservatives it seems are pumping thousands of pounds into YouTube ads attacking the referendum on voting reform. Since it was filmed on Tuesday, the YouTube clip fronted by Eric Pickles revealing “Labour’s electoral fiddle” is popping up in search engines and inboxes around the country. To see the Tories tactics in action, simply put ‘Alternative Vote’ or ‘Voting Reform’ into Google and look to your Right.

Well we’ve run his video through our very own Porky Pie detector. And here are the results:

There is nothing wrong with an honest debate on voting systems, but that doesn’t seem to be what the Conservatives want. If Advertising Standards Authority guidelines applied to politics, then Eric Pickles latest ad would be toast.

Pickles should save his lectures for a referendum. If his arguments are so strong then why not leave it to the voters to make up their minds.

So Dave - How exactly do you spell Chnage?

Less than 24 hours after Cameron’s Tories voted as one in a failed bid to derail the referendum on voting reform, and we're stepping up the pressure to ensure the bill isn’t lost in the House of Lords.

We’re not clear what David Cameron means by ‘Change’. He may have reached for a definition in some NewSpeak dictionary. Only in that kind of world, where our broken elections are overseen by the Ministry of Fairness, would the comments coming from his front bench make sense.

Cameron talks about change. He talks about fairness. He’s even dared to talk equality where our elections are concerned. None of these big words are possible without voting reform. We hope this blast from the recent past offers a gentle reminder as the referendum bill heads towards the House of Lords.

We're taking a version of that oh-so infamous billboard over to Witney, and we need our supporters to give us the slogans to pop on it. The Vote for a Change campaign is asking more than 40,000 supporters for the slogans it will be airbrushing onto billboards in his Witney constituency. Change the copy - if you're feeling creative load up photoshop and change the graphics. But either way you can get started online right here, right now. http://www.VoteForAChange.co.uk/CameronBillboard

The ‘We can't go on like this’ billboard has become iconic – and for all the wrong reasons. But this is precisely how voters feel when they see our MPs. We need stronger votes to bring our politicians down to earth.

Sadly last night the Conservatives and some Labour rebels marched together through the lobbies united against change. With less than 100 days to a general election that’s one voting record we won’t see airbrushed out.

Axis of Reaction fails to hold back referendum

Voting Reform is the only meaningful response the government or opposition have offered since the expenses crisis. And tonight a referendum moved one step closer.

The votes are in, and with 365 ayes to 187 nays we’re finally in business.

Tonight’s vote has clearly demonstrated where some of our MPs’ priorities lie. We have a new coalition in British politics. And as they shuffled through the lobbies together, Conservatives and Labour’s rebel knuckle draggers stood united against change.

We now have a clear view of which politicians have faith in their voters, and which simply have faith in the status quo.

And if this Axis of Reaction needs a leader, they need look no further than Douglas Hogg, who we heard from early on in the debate. The man who says giving us a choice on we elect MPs is a waste of public money, but moat cleaning is a-ok. Well you'd be hard pressed to find a greater spokesperson for the First-Past-the-Post tendency than Dear Douglas.

Where to now? Well the action’s shifting to what they call the Other Place, home of our unelected second chamber. Voters need the final say on how they hire and fire their MPs, and the Lords would be wise not to get involved in that messy business we call democracy.

Wantonly profligate

The House of Commons has just passed a Money Resolution authorising the government to spend public funds on a referendum to decide the voting system, by 357 votes to 180. The Commons will now debate the substance of the issue as government moves an amendment to the Constitutional Reform and Governance Bill.

Ironically, the Money Resolution was opposed by Douglas Hogg, the MP who leapt to fame for his extraordinary abuse of parliamentary expenses. He attacked spending any money on giving the public a choice on how they elect MPs, saying it was a wantonly profligate waste of public funds and an act of political cynicism - this from the man who used taxpayers' money to pay for his moat to be cleaned!

He went on to say that the reason the public hold politicians in contempt is because the legislature did not properly hold the executive to account. We would be first to say that the House of Commons should be doing its job a lot better than it is. But we also think that the Commons itself must be accountable to the people if it wishes to regain our respect.

If Douglas Hogg wants to know why MPs have sunk so low in public eyes, he need look no further than his own expense claims. If he wants to do something about it, he should vote for a change when he gets the chance tonight.