Metropol

1513: Lib Dem minister Chris Huhne has conceded that the Yes camp looks set for defeat in the AV Referendum. He told the BBC he had no idea what the final percentages would be, but "if the boxes are anything like what I've seen it doesn't look good".

(BBC News)

More of a thumping defeat than even the No to AV campaign could have imagined. Not a great surprise in that the no vote will win the day.

I voted yes because I know what the system is and I want believe in the idea of voting reform. However, to the average person, I don't think a compelling case was made by the Yes to AV campaign that would persuade someone, who knew nothing about it, to vote yes.

Meanwhile, David Blunkett admits the that no2av claim of £250m was bullshit.

"We are in the middle of an election campaign. People in elections use made-up figures. I have never used the £250m figure. It [AV] would undoubtedly cost more but I have used an extra £90m."

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/poli ... 008341.ece (£)
http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-s ... e-blunkett

The way I see it, the no vote consisted of the following:

• The essentially selfish masses of Conservative and hardline Labour who would of course see their safe-seats disappear with AV as people gained the confidence to vote according to their preference and not tactically.
• The number of people with no interest in electoral-reform who instead treated the referendum as asking the question "Do you like Nick Clegg?".

The yes vote consisted of:

• The crumbling Lib Dem support network
• Supporters of other minor parties
• Progressive Labour supporters (who can bypass the aforementioned selfish urge)

When you look at it like that, I'm surprised we even managed to rustle up 30%.

NO WINS.

Thankfully we have a conclusive result.

DVB Cornwall wrote:Thankfully we have a conclusive result.

Yes, so superior to the general election in that regard.

It's fine, there were only two choices in the referendum, so FPTP was bound to work for it - just like in all other elections.

Progressive Labour supporters

I guess that includes me then, now I am regretting voting for the LibDems...

martindtanderson wrote:Progressive Labour supporters

I guess that includes me then, now I am regretting voting for the LibDems...

At least you can bask in the knowledge your vote was wasted thanks to First Past the Post!

Would the referendum have returned a different result if the question was phrased "From the next General Election, which voting system would you prefer to see used to elect MPs? - First Past the Post - Alternative Vote"?

Final Result

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6,152,607 Yes
Votes so far 'Yes': 32.1%

13,013,123 No
Votes so far 'No': 67.9%

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Voting areas declared: 440 / 440

Admittedly better than I hoped for.