CORNWALL, CORNISH NATIONALISM AND

THE ALTERNATIVE VOTE REFERENDUM

• VOTING YES ON MAY 5^th

Most Cornish people do not want to see greater links to Devon – the so called DEVONWALL issue.

Unfortunately the Act of Parliament that contains the legislation for Alternative Vote also contains the legislation to change the constituency boundaries, the Act is called Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Act 2011.

Cleverly, (if you are not in favour of AV – like your name is Cameron) however the part dealing with change to constuency sizes is not dependent on the result of the Referendum. If you doubt me read the Referendum Question.

“At present, the UK uses the “first past the post” system to elect Mps to the House of Commons. Should the “alternative vote” system be used instead?”

Take this on board if the result of the referendum is a NO. The changes to constituency sizes will still proceed. That is already law it – unfortunately it is a done deal – DEVONWALL will happen and it is another fight.

The only people who have an interest in saying vote NO to stop the DEVONWALL CONSTUENCY are those who are campaigning for a NO VOTE. NO Vote campaigners have consistently told outright lies throughout this Referendum Campaign. First off they claimed AV would involve a £250 million expenditure on expensive voting machines – it was proved that there were no plans to introduce voting machines. Then Baroness Warsi, the Conservative Vote NO to AV campaign leader, claimed a vote for AV would only favour the British National Party – maybe to some extent it would – but it was a strange claim to make because the BNP are part of the Vote NO campaign.

This leads me to ask questions about Cornish Nationalists and MK. We are usually proud of the links between the Celtic Fringe, yet the SNP and Plaid Cymru are both backing the switch to AV. Getting tweaks made to the constituency rules – the inclusion of Cornwall and the Isle of Wight as special cases – along with the already included “special cases” the Scottish Islands – will be relatively simple compared to getting another chance to change the Electoral System.

I am 62 and for almost half my life the “First Past the Post” Electoral System has been under scrutiny, with claims that it is unfair and cannot cope with a democracy where there are more than 2 parties taking part in an election.

One NO argument made by Cornish Zetetics, is that there would have been little difference in the last General Election between the FPTP result and the calculated AV result. I beg to differ, how many people say, “I agree with party X, but they stand no chance so I will vote for the best of a bad bunch!”. In Cornwall many Labour Party suporters vote for a LibDem, for this reason. I think under AV many more people may vote for MK, before the main party candidate. Maybe no MK candidate will get in, but candidates will have to take into account the Nationalist Feelings expressed by the electorate.

IF YOU WANT A STRONG CORNWALL, TAKE THE FIRST STEPS, VOTE YES TO AV ON MAY 5th