This won't happen exclusively through defeating AV, a dismal scam designed precisely to boost the Lib Dems and ensure they could enter a Tory-led coalition (without open mutiny in the party's grassroots). It will come through a combination of defeating AV and humiliating the Lib Dems with miserably poor shares of the vote in local, Scottish and Welsh elections - losing control of councils and seeing their representation in the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly collapse.
So, it won't just be the AV result that hammers the Lib Dems. But defeating AV will help. This is because introducing AV is vital for Clegg avoiding a wipeout at the next general election, and the promise of AV was essential to forming a viciously right-wing, welfare-slashing coalition in the first place.
No, it won't bring down the whole coalition government. No, it won't hammer the Tories as hard as we'd like. No, it won't substitute for mass working class resistance - on the streets and in the workplaces - to stop the cuts.
But yes, it's still a prize worth winning. Vote NO to AV to punish the Lib Dems, deepen the tensions on their side, and embolden our side.
For a more thorough explanation of the left-wing case for a NO vote, see Counterfire's AV referendum: what we say
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doesn't a no vote just boost the Tories? And do you think that something as long-lasting as electoral reform should be decided based on what the government is doing for max 5 years?
ReplyDeleteAnyone using the referendum to do anything other than vote on the way they want politics to be is an idiot who doesn't deserve a vote in the first place.
ReplyDeleteThe second referendum in the history of British politics that will affect how you vote for the rest of your life and people want to spite someone who won't be in politics come his next election?
It's a good job we don't have to fight and die for our beliefs in this country, those people give democracy a bad name. Why waste such a rare opportunity to spite an idiot that is on borrowed time as it is?
Just published a new post on this issue:
ReplyDeletehttp://luna17activist.blogspot.com/2011/05/election-day-reminder-of-why-left.html
Crucially, the issue of cracking this coalition is far more important then minor electoral reform. I'm not sure where this idea of electoral reform as a holy grail, or a higher ground elevted above all other issues, comes from. It certainly isn't more important than what happens NOW in relation to the dominant issues of our times. This is especially true when the deal on the table is so appallingly meagre and inconequential.