Voice of Reason
This is just a quick note to recommend Ian King's latest post, "A plea: Slag STV honestly" in which he calmly and thoroughly debunks a couple of the more misguided 'No' side arguments such as worries about electronic voting or that the Assembly was hijacked by people with an ideological agenda. As Ian says,
The 'No' arguments I've seen so far have tended to more resemble the unrefined results of a long brain-storming session than a coherent critique of the system. I get the feeling (in general) that 'No' people are just throwing up any possible excuse to vote 'No' rather than just stating and elaborating on their core reasons for opposing STV. More on this another day.
"Opponents of STV do their own cause a great disservice when they try to smear STV by bringing in these strawman arguments that are at most tagential (sic) to the system."
The 'No' arguments I've seen so far have tended to more resemble the unrefined results of a long brain-storming session than a coherent critique of the system. I get the feeling (in general) that 'No' people are just throwing up any possible excuse to vote 'No' rather than just stating and elaborating on their core reasons for opposing STV. More on this another day.
posted by Declan at
11:01 AM
2 Comments:
Seems the Unitarian Jihad Name thingy was right -- Howitzer of Reasoned Discussion. (Some of my drinking buddies may blanch at the thought of that name.)
More seriously, the technique of throwing one specious argument after another grates on me. I call it "kitchen sink debating," which can be interpreted several ways. I'd be as annoyed if the Yes side claimed that switching to STV would cure voter apathy, polarization, backroom control, and male-pattern baldness.
The best sarcastic anti-STV argument I've heard is "You think that MLAs are bad now? Wait 'till you've gotta vote in five of the $%&#^%!! under STV!"
By
Ian King, at 11:43 AM
For your information, I've written a fairly basic guide to BC-STV @ http://notsugarcoatedbc.blogspot.com/2005/04/bcs-stv-your-guide.html
Well, it's under 30 days until the polls, let's help educate the public, ensuring that they make the only intellegent choice, and that they exercise their rights as citizens to vote!
By
Andrew, at 12:02 AM
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