No.
There are many people like me who believe that the current first past the post (FPTP) voting system is unrepresentative. I, and they, believe a that the fairer voting system of proportional representation (PR) is a better option. The PR system preferred is the Single Transferable Vote (STV) in multi-member constituencies.
That was not the option given to people last week. It failed and I’m glad it did. The Additional Vote wasn’t something I could get worked up about and campaign for. The “Yes to AV” campaign was dire. There was too much of a rush to get the Bill through parliament. It wasn’t a priority. The referendum should have been held in October with a long campaign to inform people. It got swamped in Scotland with the Holyrood elections being more important.
When I first got the vote, many moons ago now, I was shocked that so many votes counted for nothing under FPTP. That some parties were over-represented at Council or Parliament level. It was disgraceful that a “democratic” system of voting wasn’t what I thought of as “democratic”. I looked around for other more representative voting systems and came across STV PR. I then looked for a political party that put a change in the voting system as part of their main manifesto and voted Liberal. It wasn’t until September 1991 that I joined a political party (Scottish Liberal Democrats) and became an activist.
I’m proud that we managed to get STV PR for the Scottish Council elections – a Scottish Lib Dem achievement after the 2003 Holyrood elections.
I accept that the Additional Member System (AMS) was the best that could be agreed for the Holyrood voting system at the time but still believe its not the best option. Changing to STV PR would do away with regular but limited boundary changes and get rid of the perception of their being “two tier” MSPs.
There is an opportunity to get that change by making an amendment to the current Scotland Bill going through both Parliament’s to change the Holyrood voting system to STV PR.Then we can tackle the Westminster and European elections to bring them into line.
I believe that a coherent campaign for STV PR must be instigated as soon as possible and arguments in its favour put forward over a number of years. Then the right time for a referendum be found.
