Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

Debate between Lord Faulkner of Worcester and Baroness McDonagh

Monday 6th December 2010 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McDonagh]

My Lords, my amendment would change the wording in the Bill, which asks:

“At present, the UK uses the ‘first past the post’ system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the ‘alternative vote’ system be used instead?”,

to:

“Which electoral system would you prefer to use for electing your MP to the House of Commons? Either—

(a) the first past the post system; or (b) the alternative vote system?”.

The reason for this, as any psychologist will tell you, is that yes/no is not neutral. Yes/no has values: yes being good, no being bad. It can also cause confusion depending on whether you ask the question in a positive or a negative way.

A second unintended consequence of the wording is that it gets the voter to fixate on one system which, in the way the sentence is constructed, forces them to focus on the alternative vote system. I believe we are not asking them to choose for or against the alternative vote. In the Bill and in the referendum, we are asking them to weigh up the strengths and weaknesses of the first past the post system as against the alternative vote system and then make a choice. For these reasons I think it is much more straightforward if we pose the question in the way it is in the amendment and get people to actually choose the system they would prefer. I beg to move.

[The Deputy Chairman of Committees (Lord Faulkner of Worcester)]

I remind the Committee that if this amendment is agreed to I cannot call Amendments 21 to 27 for reasons of pre-emption.