I hope everyone is having a rest and recuperation day after yesterday’s efforts. You have certainly deserved it!

Many, many thanks to all of you who played a part in the Campaign here in Sheffield and South Yorkshire. So many people did their bit, and lots of people did very big “bits”. All were important and all helped to sustain the energy and enthusiasm. Particular thanks to Emily and Arran, our organisers, backed up by Jane Thomas for the Region, and thanks are also due to Richard Shaw who updated our website so regularly. And to you all.

It has been so encouraging to see a new generation being active, as well as, maybe more disappointingly, learning about how politics is currently “played” in our country.

Many of the pundits are talking about a lack of enthusiasm for change. I find that contradicts my own experience of working with you all. Never a dull moment, and lots of humour and good fun!

So on behaf of the Steering Group, please accept our congratulations for a job well done.

Regards

Vicky Seddon

Update

On Sunday 8th May the volunteers of Sheffield Says Yes came together for a Wake for the campaign and to commiserate each other that, after a hard fought campaign, progress in improving Britain’s democracy has not been made. However, what we do have to celebrate is the magnificent effort put in by so many people locally, and their enthusiasm and commitment. Particularly impressive has been the input of young people, which has been such an important part of the campaign. Maybe the legacy of this campaign will be to stir up greater enthusiasm for reform amongst a new generation of activists.

It is testament perhaps to their enthusiasm and commitment that the Sheffield result was clearly better than the result overall:

Sheffield

• 61,141 Yes 38.28% Yes
• 98,563 No 61.72% No

Overall Final

• 6,152,607 Yes Total votes ‘Yes’: 32.10%
• 13,013,123 No Total votes ‘No’: 67.90%

We end this post with a picture from the End of Campaign party of two of our stalwart volunteers, Arran and Emily – whose mother had kindly baked us a cake…

Sheffield says Yes! to Fairer Votes

The No campaign like to make out that the Alternative Vote (AV) is an unpopular, somehow alien and “unBritish” (according to Lord Reid) electoral system. But let’s look at what First Past The Post (FPTP) and AV (and similar preferential/run-off systems such as SV) are used for…

FPTP

• Election of MPs to the House of Commons
• Election of English Councillors

AV

• By-elections of Hereditary Peers in the House of Lords use AV to fill vacant seat when a Peer dies.
• By-elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly
• Election of leaders of the Labour (AV), Lib Dem (AV) & Conservative parties (who use a multi-round run-off which produces the same outcome as AV)
• Selection of parliamentary candidates for Labour, Lib Dems and the Conservatives. In fact Charlotte Vere, the Finance Director for NOtoAV, was selected as the Conservative Brighton Pavilion candidate using AV.
• In 2006 the selection of Conservative London mayoral candidate Boris Johnson was done by AV.
• The elections of 11 elected mayors in English cities and towns, including those of London, Doncaster and Leicester use a variant of AV called the Supplementary Vote (SV) where you express up to two preferences.
• The Election of the Commons Speaker and Lord Speaker is done using a multi-ballot run-off and AV respectively.
• The selection of committee chairs is done by AV with members of select committees chosen by STV (basically AV for multi-member constituencies where everyone above a threshold is elected)

Is there any greater example of one rule/system for MPs and one for the rest of us? It’s clear that our elected representatives and unelected Lords think FPTP isn’t suitable for them to use but that it’s fine for us common folk to use it to choose them.

If FPTP isn’t good enough for electing Lords, Mayors or selecting parliamentary candidates then it isn’t good enough for us to elect MPs. End one rule for them and one for us and say Yes! on May 5th.