I've been thinking for a while that the best line the Yes camp could take is: "Vote Yes because the Tories want you to vote No".
As the No camp are already using "Clegg wants you to vote Yes", I see no reason not to take this tack. The referendum is going to be won or lost by the votes of Labour supporters; and one would hope that if the choice is laid out clearly, they mostly hate Tories more than Clegg.
Particularly as the Tories only allowed this referendum in exchange for destroying 50 Labour parliamentary seats. If No wins, they will have got those 50 seats for nothing.
It's certainly worth mentioning - hardly a convincing case for AV but it's still better than a mere ad hominem.
People want to know who actually wins and loses from AV, neither side needs to pretend that everyone is going to vote on the basis of psephological geekery. I think it's fair for the "No" camp to point out that under AV the Lib Dems would come up the middle in some constituencies. Then again, those are the some of the same constituencies in which Lib Dem opinion polling said that 50% of voters said they'd vote Lib Dem "if they thought they had a chance of winning".
Regardless of how evil the current Lib Dem leader currently looks, it's seems fairly reasonable to me that if, on the day, 50% of the electorate want a Lib Dem MP, they should ideally be able to get that without having to all trust each other in advance to actually vote that way. Fundamentally the Tories don't want to have to stop being such perennial Condorcet losers.
Mm, that does indeed seem reasonable. Although I suspect there may be rather fewer such constituencies around, these days. I imagine that 50% support of that particular type (that dare not vote its name) is 'a plague on both their houses' re the major parties, rather than actual belief in Lib Demism.
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As the No camp are already using "Clegg wants you to vote Yes", I see no reason not to take this tack. The referendum is going to be won or lost by the votes of Labour supporters; and one would hope that if the choice is laid out clearly, they mostly hate Tories more than Clegg.
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People want to know who actually wins and loses from AV, neither side needs to pretend that everyone is going to vote on the basis of psephological geekery. I think it's fair for the "No" camp to point out that under AV the Lib Dems would come up the middle in some constituencies. Then again, those are the some of the same constituencies in which Lib Dem opinion polling said that 50% of voters said they'd vote Lib Dem "if they thought they had a chance of winning".
Regardless of how evil the current Lib Dem leader currently looks, it's seems fairly reasonable to me that if, on the day, 50% of the electorate want a Lib Dem MP, they should ideally be able to get that without having to all trust each other in advance to actually vote that way. Fundamentally the Tories don't want to have to stop being such perennial Condorcet losers.
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