David Gold: The increasing deceitfulness of the Yes to AV campaign is a direct result of the failure of their argument

David Gold is a political and sports writer.

We all have secrets from our youth that we want to hide. Mine is that I once, shamefully, worked for Unlock Democracy, as a result of which I have been receiving their “Vote Yes” propaganda for the best part of a year. Today I stopped pressing delete and in a moment of procrastination, opted to read what they had to say for themselves.
 
“We've got a "Get Out The Vote" strategy to match whatever No2AV have got planned, but we don't have their big-money backers," it said.

Immediately I clicked unsubscribe, and was asked whether I had a comment to add. Why, yes I did. Did they not think it ironic that they are claiming to not have big money donors, when the Electoral Reform Society and Joseph Rowntree Trust are providing £1 million apiece to the Yes campaign? Particularly given that the largest donation to the No cause has actually been a comparatively paltry £400,000. This can be only an act of ignorance or put simply, lying.

Politics would not be politics if we didn’t have the odd u-turn on tuition fees now and again, and admittedly, I’ve not been bothered whether or not the No campaign have been similarly dishonest. Double standards on my part? Yes, but not without good reason.