AV: No to Yes Campaign

The time before the country votes in only its second national referendum can now be measured in hours. The opinion polls are thus far united in giving the NO camp a commanding lead. It is possible the polls are wrong, that YES people will all vote, whereas NO people may not, the undecided will all go YES and so on; all probably wishful thinking if you were hoping to change the way we run our parliamentary elections.

The responsibility for their defeat, if it happens, lies firmly with the YES campaign organisers for doing such a lousy job. I do not recall a more inept campaign for anything. Most people have no idea what their message is. Their failure to get across one simple stark and clear message, that no person should go to parliament unless elected by more than half the votes counted, has never been properly proclaimed. Instead we are caught up in confusing arguments about votes flying from one candidate to another with no rhyme and little reason. 

If it goes pear shaped on Thursday for the Lib Dems they can blame nobody but themselves. They had the Tories by the short and curlies at the coalition negotiations and they could have stood out for a Parliamentary free vote (a referendum is constitutionally quite unnecessary) or a better system than AV. The Tories who have most to lose from a YES win, knew all along that AV was a difficult package to sell and that they could win a NO vote easily in  a referendum. That’s why Oliver Letwin was chuckling. The chances are that he will still be smiling when the result is declared. YES people will have to pull out all the stops to wipe that smile from his face. But then again, in politics, anything can happen.