Residents First

The cost of AV referendum

Letter to this week's Fulham & Hammersmith Chronicle:

Dear Sir,

Paul Kennedy of the H&F Liberal Democrats wishes to thank the 17,000 people in our borough who voted yes to AV. I would like to particularly thank the 24,380 who voted No. Although I was also pleased by the higher than expected turnout of 39% which has resolved the issue. I leave it to your readers to decide who which campaign was "personalised" - the Yes campaign put out desperate leaflets advising voters that as Norman Tebbit was voting No they should vote Yes. But we along with the rest of the country have shown resolve to maintain our democratic system of first past the post with one person, one vote. It is our most important export.

But while pleased with the result I do believe that demanding such a referendum at this time when public finances are in such a chronic state shows misplaced priorities. Holding the referendum cost Hammersmith and Fulham Council £249.481. This specific sum was reimbursed by central Government but had we not had the referendum then the cut in the general central Government grant could have been smaller. When the Lib Dems, and the Labour MP Andrew Slaughter who backed this unnecessary referendum, complain about cuts they might like to reflect that they are responsible for the situation being more severe than it otherwise would have been.

Yours sincerely,
Cllr Harry Phibbs
(Ravenscourt Park Ward. Conservative.)
Hammersmith Town Hall,
King Street,
W6 9JU.

Andy ‘Macavity’ Slaughter clearly views Reading as more important than his own residents and confirms Labour’s ‘part time opposition’ in H&F

Cllr Andrew Johnson writes

Given that 5th May marked the date of only the second referendum in the UK over the last 40 years you would have expected that the local MP would have been pressing the flesh in his own patch on the day. But not in the case of Andy Slaughter it would seem. For despite publicly backing the Yes to AV campaign he was nowhere to be seen on the day.

We have subsequently found out that he spent part of the day in the Commons spreading more untruth and scaremongering about our housing policy, but that he also wanted to spend part of the day in Reading. We have no idea if he actually made it to Reading but from the tone of his 3rd May newsletter that was clearly the intent:

On Thursday I aim to get to Reading for polling day. I’m hoping that resounding defeats for Coalition candidates around the country will make some of their MPs think again about the destruction they are visiting on communities like ours.

Clearly he views Reading as more important than the area he has been elected represent and despite the fact that he was out of step with public opinion over AV you would have expected him to at least have shown willing and fight for his views in his own patch, or perhaps Mr Slaughter really isn’t interested in anything where he can’t have a cheap pop at Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

This is yet another example of Labour being a part time opposition, following recent examples of Labour members not turning up for meetings, not reading council papers, or missing key debates to attend Labour Party jollies at Westminster.

H&F says No to AV - but Slaughter is out of step

Cllr Andrew Johnson writes

Hammersmith Labour MP, Andy Slaughter, has been exposed as been widely out of step with public opinion within the Borough after an overwhelming result for the local No to AV campaign last week, with 40.7% of people voting in favour of AV compared to a resounding 58.8% against.

The successful national campaign, led by the Conservatives and a large section of the Labour Party, contrasts with the stance adopted by the Hammersmith Labour Party, who chose to do nothing on the day even though the local Labour MP, Andy Slaughter, publically backed the YES campaign and urged the electorate to vote YES to AV in his constituency newsletter.

However, despite publically backing the Yes to AV campaign Mr Slaughter’s only contribution appears to have been a photo opportunity with the defeated Lib Dem candidate for Hammersmith early in the campaign. This was despite the fact that Slaughter decided to circulate a pretty offensive piece in his constituency newsletter claiming, amongst other things, that ‘first past the post can let extremists into power – like the Hammersmith Tories’. However, he does not make clear if he also views that anyone who voted to retain first past the post as also being an ‘extremist’.

His reluctance to campaign may be explained, in part, by the fact that a number of senior Labour councillors locally opposed the change to AV, thus resulting in the Labour office being closed on Poll Day and not a Labour councillor to be seen.

Further evidence of Mr Slaughter’s shifty position over AV - supporting it early on when he thought the Yes campaign might win then going silent -  can be seen by the fact that he chose to spend the Bank Holiday Monday before the referendum helping his old side kick, Stephen Burke, in Norfolk, rather than fighting his cause in Hammersmith. Surely our estimated MP wouldn’t jump on a popular bandwagon only to jump off when the going got tough. Well it wouldn’t be the first time, nor will it be the last time that Andy Slaughter finds himself so out of step with what the majority of the Borough’s residents really want.

No to AV: One Person, One Scoop

 

Boris writes for Evening Standard urging No vote

Boris Johnson has written for the Evening Standard urging a No vote tomorrow.

It was the late, great Roy Jenkins, intellectual godfather of New Labour, who got it right.

He was right about the death penalty, he was right about divorce reform, he was right to reject the odious laws on homosexuality - and he was right to reject AV.

Asked by Tony Blair to look into Proportional Representation, it was a model he explicitly chucked out - because it was not proportional.

By expressing people's second-preference votes AV would have intensified the anti-Labour mood of 1979 and the anti-Tory mood of 1997, and it would have given Thatcher and Blair even bigger majorities - far bigger than was justified by their share of the vote.

How AV would help extremists

 

Baroness Warsi says why you should vote No to AV

 

School sports day under AV

 

David Gower says No to AV

 

Darren Gough says No to AV

 

Darren Gough, record-breaking England cricketer and Strictly Come Dancing winner, says:

"I talk sport every single day, four till seven, so I know a level playing field when I see it. In cricket, you’re either in or out. So when I played cricket for England, when I was given out, I had to walk, I had to go. You didn’t get a second chance, so why should it be any different in politics?

“In cricket, we have what they call the corridor of uncertainty, and if you vote yes to AV, that’s exactly what you’re getting, but in politics. That’s why you’ve got to vote ‘no’ to AV on 5 May.”