How will Yorks & Lincs vote in Referendum 2011?
So what are you looking forward to in 2011?
The Royal Wedding of William and Kate perhaps? Or what about the Rugby Union World Cup?
The key date in the diaries of many political animals will be Thursday May 5th. This will see the coalition government's first big test of public opinion as voters across Yorkshire and Lincolnshire go to the polls in the local elections.
May 5th is also the date of the first UK-wide referendum since 1975, when voters were asked to decide whether we should remain part of what was then called the Common Market.
This time a very different question will appear on the ballot papers: "Do you want the United Kingdom to adopt the 'alternative vote' system instead of the current 'first past the post' system for electing Members of Parliament to the House of Commons?"
If you are not familiar with the proposals surrounding changes to the voting system here's a summary...Under the AV system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference. Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected. If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers' second choices allocated to those remaining. This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes cast.
The Yes and No to AV campaigns have already swung into action, with the Liberal Democrats broadly in favour of changing the voting system and the Conservatives largely against.
Much attention will be focussed on where Labour's big beasts stand on this issue. The Shadow Chancellor and Hull West MP Alan Johnson is a long-standing supporter of electoral reform.
However, his Hull neighbour Lord Prescott is less enthusiastic. The former Deputy Prime Minister has described the AV referendum and government proposals to create fewer, more equal-sized constituencies as a "poisonous package" which Labour must fight against.
It's a subject we'll debating when the Politics Show for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire returns on Sunday 16th January, 2011.
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I'm Tim Iredale, the BBC's Political Editor in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire and presenter of the regional Politics Show. This is strictly a "no-spin" zone where the political viewpoint is more Humber Bridge than Westminster Bridge. Your comments and observations are more than welcome.
Comments
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Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats have made much of their 'achievement' in getting the Tories to agree to a referendum on he proposed change in voting procedure. It appears to be very important to the Liberal Democrats.
Isn't it likely that people who are disgusted with Nick Clegg breaking promises will see this as an opportunity to vote against him by voting No in the referendum?
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I for one will be voting for AV. Lots of people have been negative about the lib dems recently, but as a conservative (of the libertarian variety) I can see that they have provided some measure of balance to the various changes being brought about. In the opposite situation of a lib-lab coalition (which seems highly unlikely in the short term as labour are just a horror story) they would provide balance against the authoritarian nature of the labour party. So for me it will be yes.
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I will be voting for AV. Its not the whole story, but, its a start.
As for Clegg, he is still the leader of the third party in the UK and in government, those of us chirping on about how ineffective he is need to remember he doesn't really count and that he is only there to make up the numbers and its still a Tory government!
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