On Tuesday we were asked to vote on the date of the proposed referendum on whether we should abandon our well understood and sensible most votes wins system and instead adopt the alternative vote system. I have heard that when the Electoral Commission did some research into how well understood the AV system was they discovered that some people thought it meant they could choose to vote at a different (alternative) polling station than the one they normally vote at, Logical and in view of the much publicised problems that occurred in some areas at the last General Election I can understand why some people thought that would be the problem Parliament was trying to resolve. Of course I take the view that this referendum is completely unnecessary anyway and that is why I voted against the Bill on Second Reading. As with all issues I try to decide how to vote in terms of what would be best for my constituents. I came to the conclusion that if we have to have a referendum at all we might as well have it on the same day so that voters are not dragged to the polls twice which would cost tens of millions pounds more.

I considered carefully the argument that such important constitutional decisions should only be taken in isolation of any other election. I decided that my constituents are quite capable of voting on the issue of the voting system at the same time as choosing who they want ton act as their local Councillor for the next four years. So I voted to keep the date which is set out in the Bill.