The Guardian tells us today that Matthew Elliot of the TaxPayer’s Alliance is to head up the campaign for a no vote in next May’s referendum on the Alternative Vote.

The TUC has no policy either way on AV as yet, though we were asked to stimulate a debate on electoral reform at our last Congress. I suspect that this announcement is unlikely to aid the no campaign in unions.

But what struck me in the article was this enconium from Conservative peer, Rodney Leach – who as Wikipedia tells us is “chairman of the eurosceptic think-tank Open Europe and a noted climate change sceptic.^{” Read more »}

   Filed under: Electoral reform, Public services | No Comments »

I’m working from home today, and before I started work I had a look at my personal e-mails. One was from Unlock Democracy, asking me to protest at rumours that the legislation on the Alternative Vote referendum will include a 40% threshold – to win, the ‘Yes’ campaigners would not only have to get over 50% of those voting, but also score over 40% of those entitled to vote. Read more »

   Filed under: Electoral reform | 4 Comments »

MPs will be voting later today on whether there should be a referendum on changing our current first-past-the-post electoral system to one based on AV.

This is not an area where there is any TUC policy – other than the motion at our Congress last year calling for us to stimulate a debate. This we have tried to kick off by publishing the Touchstone extra on electoral reform.

But in this spirit, here are some thoughts on what AV might mean. Read more »

   Filed under: Electoral reform, Politics | 1 Comment »

As you’ll know if you’ve already had a look through our latest ToUChstone Extra pamphlet, “Getting it in proportion?”, there are as many electoral systems out there as there are elections. But which to choose?

Well to help, we’ve made a clever little test. Give it your opinion on a list of statements about the way you’d like elections to be handled, and it will recommend those of our main 5 systems that most closely match your preferences.

Try it out now, and see how you might handle electoral reform.

   Filed under: Electoral reform | 8 Comments »

Today we publish the latest Touchstone Extra report, “Getting it in Proportion?”. It asks whether we need a new electoral system for Westminster elections. You can click on the image to download a copy. It is designed to help implement the resolution carried at our 2009 Congress that called for a debate within the trade union movement about whether we should move to a more proportional system for electing the House of Commons. It does not come to any conclusion but describes different systems and assesses their strengths and weaknesses. Read more »

   Filed under: Electoral reform | 3 Comments »