Did we already discuss the proposed voting law changes?

[d000hg]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8505255.stm

MPs have backed government plans to hold a UK-wide referendum on changing the voting system next year.

Voters would be asked if they wanted to keep "first past the post" or switch to the "alternative vote", which ranks candidates in order of preference.

But it is not certain the bill will become law before Parliament is dissolved ahead of the election.

I didn't see a thread, was there one? If not, does anyone care?

[BoredBloke]

Surely the alternative vote is going to go to the liberals more than anybodyelse. A Labour voter is not going to have a Tory alternative and a Tory voter is not going to have a Labour one.

Funny how Brown wants to change the voting system just when it looks like he might be turfed out. I didn't hear many calls for this straight after 1997

[Tarquin Farquhar]

Surely the alternative vote is going to go to the liberals more than anybodyelse. A Labour voter is not going to have a Tory alternative and a Tory voter is not going to have a Labour one.

Funny how Brown wants to change the voting system just when it looks like he might be turfed out. I didn't hear many calls for this straight after 1997

Very old British habit. Look at when we gave the countries of the Empire a vote: when we left, not before.

[sweetandsour]

Surely the alternative vote is going to go to the liberals more than anybodyelse. A Labour voter is not going to have a Tory alternative and a Tory voter is not going to have a Labour one.

Funny how Brown wants to change the voting system just when it looks like he might be turfed out. I didn't hear many calls for this straight after 1997

Extract from the Labour 1997 manifesto:

We are committed to a referendum on the voting system for the House of Commons. An independent commission on voting systems will be appointed early to recommend a proportional alternative to the first-past-the-post system.

Whatever happened to that pledge?