Chris

I'll tell you what it's not: in the context of a parliamentary election, it isn't proportional representation.

If you have a single post to fill, it works just fine, because it ensures that amongst the group of people who elect that single person, there is effectively a broad agreement on who is the best for the job, even if that person was the second preference for some of the voters. So it would be fine for, say, electing the president of a Student Union.

The problem is, it doesn't address the big problem we have in our system, which is that minor parties have a solid level of support spread thinly round the country. AV elections for the UK Parliament would be held exactly as FPTP ones are now, that is, 650 individual elections, one per constituency. A party could come second in every constituency under FPTP and end up with nothing. It could very easily achieve exactly the same result under AV.

To achieve proportional representation you need to take account of a party's support over a wider area, such as a region perhaps 4-5 times the size of one of our current constituencies, and then allocate multiple seats within that area based on proportions of votes gained rather than a simple majority.

Hague is on BBC News now suggesting that the Lib Dems have been asking for AV as a bare minimum in negotiations. If that's true, it's a pretty generous concession from Clegg given it is very far from what they actually want. Nevertheless, when Brown offered AV during the election campaign, Clegg acknowledged it as a 'baby step' in the right direction.

Interesting times.