Ergo, there is one referendum, with one question, on one issue.

Personally, I’d rather follow the New Zealand model, “do you want to change the voting system Y/N” and then “if we change the voting system, what should we use 1/2/3/4″ but that’s not going to happen with either the current Tory or Labour party leaderships or senior memberships, and it’s too long to wait until we get the right people senior enough.

I personally have no problem with the date, it’s a simple question, and I’d rather deliver AV yes leaflets at the same time as Vote LibDem leaflets in our council elections than have to do the whole lot again in September, plus it’d be nice to get the issue settled for this Parliament.

Plus, with the Bill as is, boundary review after every GE, fairly easy to push for STV at the next boundary review if the political will is there.

I think the boundary review has to be on those registered; it’s for those registered by the end of this year, ie the end of a years registration process, so there’s still months to get people on the rolling register, and a clear incentive for those areas that are under registered to get out and register people. If the review is always done with the electoral register from the end of the calender year containing a GE, then it’s going to have the highest registration levels likely–note all the touted “X percentage aren’t registered” numbers are from studies done by the electoral commission a few years back, there was a massive spike in registrants in the run up to this election, my ward saw a couple hundred extras on the register, and it’s a traditionally high registrant area.

Ultimately, I don’t believe in compulsory voting (although I would like to see the penalties for not registering better enforced), and if someone isn’t going to register to vote for the closest and least predictable GE for nearly 20 years then I suspect they’re unlikely to register at all.

However, I’m not sure the anlaysis that AV favours Labour over Tories is correct, at least not anymore.

I strongly suspect AV will see LD first prefs fall, but not massively (mine is up for grabs from a decent Green candidate). And if Labour keep behaving the way they have been towards LDs, LD voters will be much more likely to give their second prefs to the Tories until the Labour leadership (and indeed backbenchers) grow up.

I agree with splitting the question. If nothing else because it will become so difficult that it will be hard for some to understand.

I do think Labour’s on totally the wrong side of this argument in principle – by opposing the recalibration of seats to size.

Just a practical point – how can you possibly work out how many people ‘should’ be on the register? Particularly in fluid inner-cities where there’s a 20%+ churn in between elections that’s going to be a nightmare for the commission to sort through; no?