Wednesday 16 February 2011

#no2AV #yes2AV #meh2AV

I've tried, I've really tried to give a shit. But this is not going to change anything, really, so who gives a fuck? If you want to read something from the Electoral Reform Society, feel free.

The main thing that AV does as far as I can tell is to ensure that every MP wins at least 50.1% of the vote. But is the opinion of 50.1% of the electorate really that much more important than the opinion of the remaing 49.9%?

Nah, fuck it. It's all a con, it's all bread and circuses. Fuck politics. Fuck government. Fuck people who rule us. They're all unmitigated cunts.

Fuck them.

9 comments:

Richard Allan said...

That Electoral Reform Society article is a load of bollocks from a bunch of lying cunts. AV does not "eliminate the wasted vote problem", in fact it makes it even worse because AV fails the monotonicity and participation criteria whereas FPTP passes both. Those criteria are the mathematical specification of the wasted vote problem, ie. whether you can hurt a candidate by voting for him, or hurt your first choice by voting at all. That's right, under IRV you're better off not voting at all (as opposed to FPTP, where the benefit from voting always exists, but may be negligible).

Also I wrote a comprehensive electoral simulator in which AV was the only system tested to deliver less voter satisfaction than FPTP (even without taking ballot complication into account, one of the major costs of AV), but you don't really have any way to verify that.

The trouble with this "debate" is that there really is an objectively correct answer from a mathematical point of view as to which system maximises voter satisfaction, but people treat it like a difference of opinion. Just like, you know, everything else in economics.

Michael Fowke said...

Instead of pissing about like this, politicians should try becoming decent human beings. That would be an innovation!

sixtypoundsaweekcleaner said...

Why do we expect the establishment to do anything to help us? It's their usual self-serving crap as usual.

Just Woke Up said...

Got to agree. I've looked at the pros and cons of each and see fuck all benefit to me or democracy. The real referendum that would make a difference is one to get us out of the EUSSR and back in control of our own future.

Just more blurring of lines and more petty bureaucrats. meh

Max the Impaler said...

Succinct and totally relevant philosophy for todays apparatchiks.Traitors,liars and thieves to a man.

Aniff said...

I disagree that AV means the winner is approved by 50.1% of the voters. It means that the elected candidate is NOT disapproved by 50.1% of the voters. So in a great many seats the two big parties will be advantaged - and I think perhaps Labour more than the Tories but cannot be arsed going into it.

This is not a better system than the present system for voters. I suggest that the additional member system as practised now in Scotland has allowed minority/independent candidates to get elected, while delivering approximate proportionality and large enough parties to deliver stable government. Offer us that and I'll be a yes. But as it is, I am a no to AV.

Tim Almond said...

With AV, you also get new parties. That is why the 2 main parties are so against it. The Conservatives don't want UKIP taking what they perceive as THEIR seats.

And the reason that UKIP don't get votes isn't that UKIP aren't popular, it's that people are forced to take a choice between who they really want and who they feel will get Labour out. So they pick a compromise of the Conservative candidate.

You end up with, in each seat, a duopoly over the candidates, which is why the only new small parties are basically parochial nationalists. You have to get your votes concentrated. If you're a party based around new ideas, but with something resembling a philosophy, you don't have a prayer with FPTP.

When people actually have a system where a vote for UKIP counts (like the Europeans) they vote much more for UKIP.

Mitch said...

With the piss poor choice between a Turd and a Douche bag I will no longer vote "for" someone but will just vote for the most extreme party available just to screw their analysis.

John Demetriou said...

I like it when Kevin comes into my bedroom at night and hops under my covers and plays with my firehose. It gives me a tingling feeling and milk comes out of the hose, and Kevin must like milk because he always licks it up. Sometimes I can feel his finger go up my poo-hole but I'm maybe saying too much...