AV referendum – it doesn’t have to be this way  

Perhaps like me, you sense there’s something not right with our political system.  Yet you can't quite see how AV is the solution.  Maybe, when the Coalition was first formed, you found yourself pleasantly surprised. So much so, that when Dave and Nick announced a referendum on electoral reform, you thought “why not?” Over the summer, I’ve been looking hard to see how AV is the answer to anything. I still don't get it. AV does nothing to solve the problem of “safe seat” party fiefdoms, which make so many MPs answer inward to party whips, rather than outward to local people. Far from making our politicians more accountable, surely AV actually allows them to disregard large chunks of opinion?  For a generation or so, we have been moving from a political...