The great debate is happening across the country. The biggest reform to our electoral system for decades is being proposed to an eager electorate. This politically engaged polity are positively overwhelmed with excitement at the possibility to once again get involved in the political process, especially with the prospect of shaping the system itself. Does this sound familiar? No?! It doesn’t sound at all familiar to me either! The scene just described is what the politicians want us to believe is happening but even they seem to see the referendum as a distraction.

So why are we having such a referendum then? Well of course it comes back to that legendary Coalition Agreement, when the Conservatives made their full and comprehensive offer. This of course was accepted by the Lib Dems and now we have the main event fast approaching in May.

With a national referendum, you would normally expect some sort of national debate but this just has not happened. I believe after extensive research, I have come to the reason why AV has not ignited the imagination of the electorate… No one cares! Outside of the Westminster bubble, people are just not engaged because it doesn’t even come close to getting on their list of priorities. With world crises becoming a near weekly occurrence and with the economy resembling an ugly and rather short teenager, i.e. suffering from a lack of confidence and growth, you can guarantee that electoral reform isn’t keeping people awake at night. The problem for people within the Westminster bubble is that this is an issue that they can get passionately involved in because it concerns the most important issue that an MP ever concerns himself/herself with… their jobs. This is the only aspect of the AV debate where MPs are in line with their constituents. The electorate want MPs to concentrate on how they can make sure their constituents don’t lose their jobs rather than discussing the electoral system. The MPs want to discuss the electoral system because it could directly affect their job security.

The fact that the Lid Dems were willing to allow one of their key promises to be thrown to the wolves in the case of tuition fees but demanded AV shows their true priorities. This is where the Lib Dems showed an astonishing level of self-interest. Unlike the Tories and Labour who promised at the election to follow the Browne review of the tuition fee system, the Lib Dems kept along their established party line of promising to scrap tuition fees. Now many have argued that the Lib Dem manifesto was never written with the intention of the Party having to actually keep to their promises when in government but I believe this is letting them off the hook too easily. The prospect of a hung parliament was obvious to any observer of British politics and the Lib Dems must have known that in the case of a hung parliament they would be the kingmakers. It is plausible to believe that if the Lib Dems had asked for tuition fees to be protected against large increases rather than calling for the AV referendum then the Tories would have agreed and you would not have the seen the large backlash against the Party. The fact that they didn’t try to do this shows that they put it in their manifesto to win student votes, with no intention of keeping their promise.

Now I realise I look like a student with a grudge by making this point but I’d like to say that I actually support increasing tuition fees as the burden should surely be more on the student rather than tax payers. What angers me is the Lib Dems not admitting that the fact that they placed their own interests ahead of the interests of a large group of their voters. This is not to say I don’t believe political parties shouldn’t be pragmatic when in government and that some pledges can’t realistically be implemented but the Lib Dems are still trying to claim the moral high ground, still trying to portray themselves as something more than just a political party. Only today (31/3/11) the Lib Dem deputy leader has claimed that scrapping tuition fees is still a key commitment for the Party (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12923049). This is such ridiculous rhetoric is futile when the actions of the Lib Dems speak much louder.

The irony is that the Lib Dems have taken their place in government in exchange for a reform that Nick Clegg had originally described as a ‘miserable little compromise’. In fairness to Clegg this is a moment when I fully agree with him but why he agreed to this ‘miserable little compromise’ whilst allowing one of his main policies be torn to pieces completely astounds me. Either they were naïve to believe it wouldn’t backfire on them, in which case I wouldn’t want a party so naïve to be anywhere near power, or they made a decision to go with their own interests over that of the people who voted for them. This is fine by me but I never voted for them. I’ve got a feeling that those student voters who did, may struggle to vote for the Lib Dems again and whether it is under First-Past-The-Post system or under AV is utterly irrelevant.