Yesterday, the British Public resoundingly quashed the notion of switching to the Alternative Vote system of electing MPs, with the No campaign crushing the Yes camp with 68% of the total vote.
As I expected, the Yes camp have thrown their toys completely out of the pram.
I stand by what I said. From the post-result reaction, it’s clear now that the better side won. The No side has been victorious, and is rightly celebrating that fact. However, as I predicted, the Yes camp (remember that Tweet from last time?) has decided to be a bunch of sore losers.
Let’s, first, take this tweet from someone not entirely devoid of grey matter, but who requested I don’t reveal his identity (as they’re a friend, I’ve honoured this request on this occasion):
fuck this country and fuck its electorate #thatwillteachmefortrustingthegeneralpublic
I also found this on the feed:
@PeterTatchell Can't see another chance for reforming this totally unfair/achaic FPTP voting system! Only the selfish & stupid voted #no2AV
Vegan Panda
veganpanda
Whoops.
Great. Surely it was the condescension on the general public – by the likes of Eddie Izzard, who if you recall also backed the other non-starter the Euro and was in the pocket of the Labour Party for many years – that helped, along with the fact that AV is a load of old cobblers, turn the tide against the Yes campaign and delivered a decisive No vote? Because insulting the very people that vote, and that people fought and gave lives for the ensure they had the vote, for not agreeing with you on whatever level, is the real intelligent way of behaving, is it?
Speaking of wars I saw this howler on the trending page for #no2av and it really got my back up…
Utterly disgusted at #No2AV campaign, based on ignorance and mud-slinging.; Goebbles would have been proud.
Doug Scott
ozidug
It wasn’t even the misspelling that wound me up. Though it didn’t help.
The Goebbels comparison was made during the AV campaign – aimed at Conservative Co-chairman Baroness Warsi – and quite rightly got pilloried, and the tweet above is as equally mindless. One only has to look at why the BNP, itself a minor party, would align itself against a system that is supposed to help minor parties! of course this reasoning went out of the window in the Yes camp. And again, this makes the whole insipid Yes camp reek of childishness and petulance. I despair that so many on the Left seem to think that, when it is the Tories that are their adversaries, then it’s fair game to call them all Nazis. Odd and one-sided, I might add, when the Left themselves are absolutely without a sense of humour themselves and will get high-and-mighty at virtually no notice at any perceived slight and blow it completely out of context.
It was nice to see that the soreness of the vanquished Yes camp wasn’t unnoticed across the Web…
Good to see the #yes2av admit defeat with good grace and not claim anyone voting #no2av are stupid. Oh, no ... that's not the case.
Paul I
theimp67
That old wheezebag Paddy Ashdown still can’t shut up about how “wicked” the Tories were for actually standing up for what they believed in during the No campaign. Imagine that.
Anyone’d think they liked the sound of their own whiney voices?
The vague, BS promise that AV would make MPs work harder? Not true. The assertion that AV would only allow MPs to eventually be elected with a 50% mandate? Hilariously (and unwittingly) disproved by the BBC. Tackling “safe seats”? Nope. The Yes campaign was flawed and the British public didn’t buy it. Instead of insulting the electorate and behaving like children whose toy has been taken away from them, the Yes camp should not play the blame game, but accept the result and move on. You had your long-awaited referendum given to you on a plate, and you freaking lost it. Boo-hoo, get on with it.
Not to say the No camp was perfect; the “£250m bill for AV” was pretty much picked out of thin air. But I maintain that the arguments against AV in the fact that it is an unfair system are valid, and it’s what the entire country – all 12 voting regions – agreed with.
Let us not forget the injunction they attempted to take out to cover up the vested interest one of the Yes camp’s backers, the Electoral Reform Society, had in a yes vote. Or the threats by Chris Huhne (more on him later) to sue the No camp for “lying” – when they seemingly had no other weapons left in the arsenal to turn the tide back in favour of AV.
I’m even less impressed with various Liberal Democrat ministers, two of which, Vince Cable (the fallen angel of the Yellows) and Chris Huhne (bitter about losing the leadership election twice) have shown astounding displays of disloyalty to the government they are a part of. Again, they’re bad losers. However, their self-concerned convictions about AV don’t run deep enough in regards to the serious business of governing in the national interest; neither have resigned from the Cabinet, as convention dictates they should in the event they disagree or are disloyal to the degree they have been. It really shows the Lib Dems for what they really are and what I knew them to be long ago: selfish and only interested in hanging onto any semblance of power. May the next General Election bring about what this country is crying out for – a majority Conservative government, and long may it flourish under such administration.
My views of the results nationally are quite simple: the Conservative Party held up remarkably for a governing party, which has traditionally done badly in local elections (Labour will remember this), and has actually gained councils and council seats. I expected it to be much worse, what with the abject lies and misinformation and scaremongering coming from the left about “Tory Cuts”
Now that the sideshow of AV is over – and will be over for a long time, as the British people have shown themselves, whether by turning up to vote or caring so little as to not bother at all, that electoral reform is not a priority for them – let’s get on with tackling the various issues our country has, something this Coalition has been doing a sterling job of.
The result was No, damn.
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