Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Up the Blues

Last Thursday, to my great delight, Britain resoundingly rejected the adoption of the Alternative Vote in favour of keeping our First-Past-The-Post method in the voting system referendum. I always thought it was going to be a close race, with the Yes vote perhaps creeping past the No supporters and snatching electoral 'reform'.

How wrong I was, and how right this country was. With just over 13 million No votes and 6 million Yes's, the No2AV campaign could claim victory as Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrats saw their dreams of electoral reform, as well as their council rapport,  crumble before their eyes.

A map of those which voted in favour of Jedward's imprisonment and those that actually listen to their music.

So, we'll be keeping one person, one vote, one Government party, one Official Opposition (most of the time). Perhaps one day there will be another referendum on electoral reform, but for the time being, the voters have made their choice - a choice that was very clear.

What I was also pleasantly surprised at were the local election results. The Conservatives were tipped to lose 400, maybe 500 council seats, while instead we managed a net gain of 86, two of which came from my own borough, and we still have the most councilors in the entire country. Ed Miliband, meanwhile, had a largely underwhelming result all round, and in Scotland his party suffered defeat to the now majority SNP in the Assembly elections, which will pave the way for another referendum, that of Scottish independence. People clearly realize, despite electing almost two and a half thousand red councilors, that Labour are not the way forward, both locally and nationally. Miliband is going to concurrently realize his defeat as he is further dismissed by voters due to the atrocious things his party did in government. How this current government effectively deals with his party's complete train wreck of a previous administration, and how our Tory Councils assist in this repair work, I hope will give us an even better result next year.

Now, the battle for electoral reform is over. The battle for Scottish independence is about to begin.

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