Alternative vote.

I'm keen to get something out on this since Gordon Clown is babbling on about it in his pathetic desperation but time and other rages are working against me. It looks a lot like he's looked at Australia and thought 'hmm, their version is working well there and that Kevin Dudd person they've got as PM is a good Labour man as well' and decided to suggest something a lot like it for Britain. I need to find time to look into a few things but my feeling is that as a democratic and accountable system it's dead wrong for the UK as a solution to current problems or an end point at which to aim, though paradoxically it's possible that it's a good place to start (advantage Australia perhaps, or perhaps not given how hard it is to make constitutional changes). As a teaser I'll point out that Australia has the same problems with safe seats that the UK has, has had governments that have hung around long enough to go well beyond their use-by date and start to stink the place up, and has had (actually has) governments with a good majority in the lower house of Parliament. Gordon Brown claims that Alternative Voting will solve these problems in the UK, and I'm telling you that the Aussie system hasn't done anything of the kind here. Various posts have languished in bloggie limbo before I've finally taken pity on the poor things and deleted them, but this is one I'm determined to get out in the next day or two.