Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

My Lords, this is a fairly corrupt voting system. I am not going to go over the details of what we discussed in the earlier clauses; this amendment essentially deals with the second preference of the losing candidate. We had a speech earlier on, which may have been from the noble Lord, Lord Lamont, but was certainly from the Conservative side, which quoted what Winston Churchill had said about the alternative vote and what made it a very false system—that the second preference of the voter who had voted for the least popular candidate was used to create the winner. On balance it looks like you are giving two votes to voters who choose the least popular candidate. You are not giving two votes to the voter who chooses the most popular candidate, or the second most popular candidate, but the voter who chooses the least popular candidate is effectively given two votes. I do not think that is fair, and we have to address this issue of using AV, which the Lib Dems now appear to love. I have visions. I have been listening today to the debates, which will not get reported, but I cannot wait to watch the television studio performances in March, April and May of the leading lights of the coalition Government as these provisions are dissected by the Paxmans of this world. They are paying no attention to it now—and I am not complaining about that—but who, when it comes to the minutiae, will start to think back and say, ““Oh, bloody hell, they raised this in the Lords and we never listened to what they were saying””. On this one I am giving you another lifeboat; what to do with that least popular vote that looks unfair to the public. Why should someone have two votes? It is clear that the alternative vote can be used to ensure that every voter can influence the results in a way that is not possible under first past the post. I freely accept that it can be used. Under this Bill, however, it is not possible to claim that every voter will be able to do it because it is an optional system. You still have the problem of what you do at the end with the vote that gets transferred. Why should the second vote of the person who has voted for the least popular candidate have the same value as the first vote? This is not original; I read it in some academic text somewhere, although I cannot remember where and I have not been able to go back to it. In my view it is quite simple: why should it have the same value? Why not put the value on it that the voter, or the voters as a whole, created for that candidate? So, if you have five candidates—one, two, three, four, five—and the fifth one is coming out, the second preferences for that candidate are worth a fifth of a vote to whoever they have chosen among the others. If there are only four candidates, you give them a quarter of the vote. If there are eight or nine candidates, and the bottom one finishes ninth, then the second preference is worth a ninth of a vote to the candidate that they have chosen for it. That to me seems fair. You are not giving people two votes, which is what you are effectively doing under the present system, but you are giving them the vote in proportion—that word might not go down too well here at the moment—to where they came on the ballot paper. I think that has a fairness appeal to it. It is much fairer than giving people two votes. It seems obvious, it is fair, it is practical and it avoids the central criticisms levelled against the alternative vote, leaving aside whether it is compulsory to use all your preferences or not. One of the central criticisms of it is—let us put names on it—if the BNP candidate comes at the bottom. We may have a view about people who want to put the BNP candidate as their first choice, but why should those people’s second choice have the same value as their first choice? It does not really matter who came bottom, but that is the reality we are coming to. That is a very serious criticism against the alternative vote. It was made by Churchill, it was quoted in this House and I think it has some value. So let us do something about it. My suggestion does not affect the Bill, the date or any preparations for the referendum, it does not affect the day; it affects only the way you count the votes. That is all. In that case, it might take a little bit longer. I know someone is going to say, ““Oh, we can’t have decimal points on the vote””. Why not? We can count. People understand decimal points. Talking about voters not understanding things, I had people who could not write, but they could fill in a full perm on a football coupon though, and the women could read a knitting pattern, so do not talk to me about people not understanding. They understand the value whether it has a decimal point or not. It is either worth more or worth less. It is fair and very simple, and I offer it at this point in time—23.17. I do not mind when it comes into play. I would like to have some really good arguments about why we should not do this because basically, as is known, I prefer a PR system However, I am trying to make this present system, if this is what is going to be driven through by Parliament—I do not say that pejoratively—fairer to the voter and easier to explain in those television studios when you are on the third degree. I can say one thing for sure: this referendum will not be as popular in the television studios as Mr Clegg was in those first question and answer sessions. The heat will be on and they will be taking apart the system, looking at the nitty-gritty, looking at all the contradictions about what can happen with an optional AV system, which we have explored here over the past six days. The central criticism is the one about the second preference for the least-popular candidate, so let us not give them a full vote. Let us give them the vote where they came on the ballot paper. I beg to move.