MP’s have voted on the Government amendment to the Constitutional Reform Bill going through parliamentary stages, which commits a government to holding a referendum on a change to our voting system by October 2011.
Hansard records the debate. Unfortunately not how MP’s voted. From the earlier vote on the bill I’m sure ours, sensibly, voted against this amendment.
I listened to a smidgen of the debate on the BBC’s Democracy Live website, and it was utter drivel from the LibDems David Howarth, who was saying that no-one either read or took any notice of party manifesto’s. Here’s the bit I heard,
“That is even laying aside the fact—obvious to everyone in politics—that no one outside the political bubble reads manifestos.”
“Manifestos are mainly for internal consumption. That is the reality that people do not seem to be willing to accept.”
What complete tosh. I’ll come back to this debate later.



