Christopher Hall: How AV has been defeated in decades gone by

Christopher Hall is Parliamentary Assistant to a Conservative MP.

The current AV campaigns have seemingly become less about substance and more about style as the May 5th Referendum reaches ever closer, with the battle increasingly being fought in mass and social media fields with support from a whole plethora of celebrity backers. However, we should all not lose sight of the substance of the argument, and on this we would do better to take our cues from history and fact. With this in mind what do the Duke of Wellington, Robert Peel, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden and William Gladstone all have in common? They have all opposed reckless attempts at Parliamentary or Electoral Reform.

In 1931 Anthony Eden said that:

“..this was almost the last stage in a great series of Reform Bills since 1832. I wonder if it occurred to him what a melancholy contrast is our position in this House this afternoon with that of the great Reform Bill of 1832. At that time a number of Members of this House were attempting to resist a reform for which there was an immense popular demand. To-day we see an unhappy Home Secretary plodding the last tired stage of his course on behalf of a Measure for which he has no affection and for which his supporters have less.”

Sound familiar?