Why won’t the No campaign defend First Past the Post?

Today I signed up to the  Yes to Fairer Votes campaign’s petition that is challenging the No campaign to a debate about First Past The Post’s (FPTP) merits.

The point is that, while they are urging people to vote ‘no’ in the referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV), the No campaign aren’t able to make a coherent argument about why we should keep the  system. Indeed they seem to want to avoid defending FPTP. So the Yes campaign are asking people to;

“Join our call to Margaret Beckett, president of the No campaign, for an honest debate about the merits of first past the post.  The No campaign can name the time and the place – all we ask is that they bring clear, honest arguments for the status-quo system they’re campaigning to uphold on 5 May.”

You can read their letter to Margaret Beckett and sign up to the petition.

This content was originally posted on my old Strange Thoughts blog.