LONDON LETTER: Campaigners seeking to preserve the UK's voting rules for Westminster elections are triumphant – even before polls open
THE HISTORY of the Methodist Central Hall in Westminster is filled with the story of elections and politics. Just across the road from the houses of parliament, it hosted the United Nations’ General Assembly’s first meeting in 1946, as a war-ravaged world struggled in search of solace.
Back then, the fee for the use of the hall was small. Legend has it that the assembly, in one of its first votes, agreed to paint the walls of the church in light blue – the paint is still there, though showing its age.
In 1898, the Methodists decided to raise “one million guineas from one million” church-goers to mark the centenary of the birth of the church’s founder, John Wesley. Regardless of means, each donor was only allowed to give one guinea. The target was comfortably reached, with a quarter of the money used to erect Central Hall, which has held to its mandate to offer “great service for conferences on religious, educational, scientific, philanthropic and social questions”.
In 1914, it hosted a meeting of the suffragettes on the eve of war as they sought votes for women. Appropriately, perhaps, or not, therefore, depending on one’s views, it hosted, on Tuesday, the final “No to the Alternative Vote” campaign rally.
Younger supporters in campaign T-shirts looked uncomfortable out of suits. Conservatives, in tweeds, seemingly recently arrived from the shires, sat on the left. Labour stalwarts: union men, for the most part, on the right, uncomfortable sharing any meeting with Tories.
The referendum on AV, which will be decided tomorrow, has thrown up strange bedfellows: former Labour chieftains such as John Reid have stood alongside Conservative prime minister David Cameron.
If the polls are to be believed, the bid to replace first-past-the-post with AV will be defeated easily when counting finishes on Friday, though it will leave a residue that could infect politics in Britain for years to come.
The “No” campaign has played to people’s fears, warning that the foundations of British democracy are under attack – but, often, it has seemed to display a superior contempt for some of the very people they need to attract.
In a final campaign video, not shown publicly, characters, including a teacher, some dim-witted students, along with a young Asian, were shown failing to understand the basics of AV, which while it might not be the right choice for the United Kingdom is not hard to understand.
Throughout, the “No” side has been quick to give prominence to Labour voices from Reid, to former foreign secretary Margaret Beckett to David Blunkett, even some union leaders, but it is largely funded by Conservative supporters.
The “Yes” campaign, on the other hand, has failed to appear as anything other than an anti-Conservative front, petulantly fighting back in the latter stages of the campaign as it struggled to cope with its opponents’ better-funded efforts.
Later on Tuesday, the “Yes2AV” campaign met for its final rally in the Royal Institution for last-minute pep talks from One Foot In The Grave star Richard Wilson, comedian Eddie Izzard and Labour leader Ed Miliband.
There was one Conservative: London assembly member Andrew Boff, who delivered the best-explained case for voting “Yes” in the campaign. Indeed, one could legitimately wonder why he was not made more prominent during the campaign.
In 37 years of Conservative membership, he said, he had never once been asked to vote on the selection of a candidate or office-holder using first-past-the-post. “Not once, never, never,” he told supporters. It was always done by AV.
David Cameron was elected using AV as Tory leader in 2005 ahead of the opening favourite, David Davis, who led on the first round: “The one person who has a valid reason for voting for first-past-the-post is Davis.
“Tories are familiar with AV because it means that the candidate chosen has the support of the majority in a local organisation. So should we not give that respect to the electorate themselves?” declared Boff.
Leaving, however, the supporters had about them the air of people who know they are beaten. One poll yesterday put them 18 points behind, another put the gap at 32 points. A victory would be of Lazarus-like proportions.
If so, a dream of so many for so long will die with it. AV may or may not be the answer: such calls are not for outsiders to make, but first-past-the-post is increasingly anachronistic in an age of ever-fracturing political loyalties.
The Liberal Democrats, who wanted proportional representation but were forced to accept an AV referendum, cannot even hope it is a well to which they can return, if they ever have the chance of an alliance with Labour.
So far, Labour has managed rather well the fact that Ed Miliband supports AV while most of his MPs do not, believing that Liberal Democrats in the North are vulnerable now in a way they were not last year.
