Humbuggery

A most dispiriting and frustrating 5 minutes spent watching elderly comfortably-off Conservative gentry on Newsnight last night. They were on a home counties golf course amiably dismissing the need for electoral reform. Their wives meanwhile were attending a pottery event nearby. They were far worse. Why should they worry their fluffy little heads with the complexities of AV? Far too difficult to understand. They would much rather leave such complicated matters to their menfolk. What? ! The only the way this bunch of complacent affluent noodles would burn their bras would be if their house caught fire. Their approach could be summed up as ‘we do what the Tory party and our husbands tell us.’ Isn’t evolution brilliant?

The ‘No’ campaign have appealed to the thick and the uninterested by making it all sound very complicated. No it isn’t. It is as simple as 1-2-3. The ‘Yes’ campaign have overcomplicated matters and relied on slick PR when clarity was all.

Cameron opposes AV. He is only PM because of it. The first ballot in the leadership election was won by David Davies. Cameron came in second. The bottom candidate dropped out and they all voted again. Second preferences anyone? There are many other similar examples where our ruling class use AV to decide who gets what but then, they clearly are so much cleverer and superior to us. 

Humbuggery, smuggery, thuggery and disregard for fairness allied to outright lies and the support of the Murdoch media empire are turning what should be a good debate about the future of our democracy into a farrago of flatulence. And there are a few more tortuous days to endure.