My heart sinks when I see Peter Mandelson entering the debate on AV. He repels as many voters as he attracts.

The same can be said of Nick Clegg who is as welcome these days as a dose of anthrax.

I find myself in uncomfortable company. But, there you go. I am still resolutely in favour of AV.

I like the idea of single member constituencies. But I also believe MPs should be able to demonstrate the support of over 50% of voters.

As I’ve mentioned before, here in first-past-the-post Canada, two thirds of MPs in the last House of Commons were elected on less than 50% of the vote. Many MPs were returned with support in the 30% to 40% range.

With less than a week to polling day, we are now seeing a surge in support for Jack Layton, the leader of the left leaning NDP. The pundits are predicting the NDP will do well against a lacklustre Bloc in Quebec. They are also eating into the Liberal vote elsewhere.

The unintended consequence could well be a Conservative majority government. Such are the vagaries of first-past-the-post.

I read that Cameron’s speech on 18 April was the turning point when the polls started to move decisively against a change in the voting system.

He claims AV is obscure, unfair and expensive.

That's too absurd.

A useful research paper from the Library of the Parliament of Australia addresses some of these claims (see attachment below).

We learn that AV is easily understood by Australian voters.

Preferential Voting (the Alternative Vote) as used in Australia is more complex than (first-past-the-post), but the evidence of over eighty years suggests that the vast majority of Australian voters understand how to vote in a preferential voting election and, even if some do not understand the actual counting arrangements, they understand the system’s effects.

And it produces stable government.

In the years since Preferential Voting was introduced for House of Representatives elections in 1918, only in 1940 has one party or a coalition of parties failed to win control of the House of Representatives

There is no such thing as the perfect electoral system. But first-past-the-post can produce distortions – as Canada will shortly discover - that can take your breath away.

Taliban jailbreak

The jailbreak in Khandahar in which 470 prisoners escape produces much soul searching in the Canadian press.

But Conservative Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, describes it merely as a “learning experience”.

Canada has reportedly spent over $4 million on the Sarposa prison since the last mass break out in 2008 involving more than 800 prisoners.

How was it that no-one could detect a tunnel being excavated over five long months?

How many more of these “learning experiences” can we expect before the penny finally drops?

Trying to build a modern nation state in Afghanistan – corrupt to the core - is futile.

Attachments:

electoral_voting_systems_research.pdf

[AV in Australia]

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