Leader: No alternative

‘It’s not the voting that’s democracy,’ says Dotty in Tom Stoppard’s play Jumpers, ‘It’s the counting.’ Dotty is right, of course.

‘It’s not the voting that’s democracy,’ says Dotty in Tom Stoppard’s play Jumpers, ‘It’s the counting.’ Dotty is right, of course. Counting may be boring, but it is crucial. Nick Clegg knows this well. If on 5 May Britain decides to count votes the AV way, it will be a triumph for his party. According to a recent academic analysis, the alternative vote would give the Lib Dems 43 more MPs — almost doubling the number they have now.

But it would be a victory not just for Lib Dems, but also for the forces of banality. Why? Because AV would inevitably mean that the ‘conviction’ politicians — the Tony Benns and the Margaret Thatchers — would be filtered out of the system. Anyone with forceful opinions or real plans for reform would be unlikely to collect second- or third-preference votes. In a system that favours the least offensive and most pedestrian, the Lib Dems would prosper.

So why are we having this referendum on AV? It wasn’t, after all, in either of the coalition parties’ manifestos. The answer is that it’s Nick Clegg’s consolation prize. Going into coalition with the Conservatives has proved so toxic for his party that, if an election were held tomorrow, the Lib Dems would lose 39 of their 57 MPs. It seems almost by way of apology to his deputy that David Cameron has agreed to give him a chance to rig the British electoral system in his favour.

But no matter how sorry we may feel for Clegg, history shows that our recent attempts to improve British democracy have only made things worse. After two decades of constitutional tinkering, power has been parcelled away from Westminster and sent to Strasbourg, to Brussels, to the Celtic fringe or to the judiciary.