Right ends, wrong means

This morning, The Independent columnist Johann Hari wrote this piece about the AV referendum, and one particular system called AV-Plus. The article has the headline, ‘If you get the X Factor you’ll get AV: You can vote No with David Cameron, the BNP and a campaign that thinks you are too thick to count to three’. 

I sent this email  today after reading it:

Johann

You make the most intelligent point yet in this tawdry and childish debate, but then use a headline that is the worst kind of guilt by association stuff worthy of The Sun.

The AV-Plus system you refer to is very close to the German ‘List’ system they’ve been using successfully in Germany since the early 1950s. I like list top-ups because they remove the need for multiple rounds of voting, and erode the relationship between MP and constituency. MPs are elected to be legislators, not lobbyists. We should devolve far more executive power to communities, and increase the time for MPs to keep a watchful eye on the Executive power…..easily the biggest threat to liberty in Britain, whoever’s in government. Most MPs I know say what they have to in public – “I hold surgeries every week blah blah blah” – but the constant back and forth is wasteful and tiring.

But why the ‘join the BNP and vote FPTP’ slur? Many years ago, I remember a Tory candidate in Smethwick quietly issuing a leaflet saying ‘If you want a nigger neighbour, vote Labour’. Whichever way round ‘framing’ is used, it is deplorable.

You’re a talented bloke of great decency – don’t descend to their level.

John Ward