Labour says Yes to AV

Yesterday saw the launch of two very different campaigns: the official Labour Yes to AV campaign and the opposing official Labour No to AV campaign.

The Labour Yes campaign was unveiled by the current Labour leader Ed Miliband, with support from the former London Mayor Ken Livingstone, former Labour leader Neil Kinnock and former Home Secretary, Alan Johnson.

Mr Milband said this was a once in a lifetime opportunity for true democratic reform:

These opportunities don't come along very often, and we've got to seize that moment.

The No campaign was launched with former Government Ministers Caroline Flint, John Prescott and David Blunkett.

Caroline Flint inaccurately portrayed the AV system as benefiting fringe groups like the BNP and far Right organisations. However, all the research points to the fact that the AV system is buffered from electoral threats by these types of groups. In fact, the BNP and other far Right groups are actively campaigning against AV for precisely this reason.

As those who are regular to this Blog may know OBV have advocated a Yes vote and are an official partner of the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign.

Visit Yes to Fairer Votes to find out more about the AV referendum taking place on the 5th May.