Don't listen to a lot of the arguments on AV: They're bogus

Anyone who reads or listens to our politicians will probably get a whole load of bogus arguments by both pro and anti lobbies shoved down their throats. Let's debunk some of the arguments.

From the Pro-AV camp, here's some of the arguments:

1. It will lead to a more proportional electoral result. Not necessarily, it will lead to different results in some constituencies, but not necessarily more proportional. Some voting models have shown that AV can lead to a less proportional House of Commons.
2. It will clean up politics. Not at all. If anybody can tell me why it will clean up politics then let me know how. I can't see why AV would change an MPs behaviour, if they have to have over 50% of the vote, why would they be any less arrogant?
3. All votes have the same weight. No, if you're not in a marginal constituency then the situation is the same as now. With AV, some people's second choices are counted where other's aren't.

From the Anti-AV lobby, here's the opposing arguments:

1. It will lead to more coalition politics. Not necessarily, if it is unproven that AV leads to more proportional results then it is unlikely to lead to more coalition Governments.
2. AV is complex. Not really, rather than putting an X in a box it's as simple as rating your preferences. You'd have to be a bit of a dunce not to be able to do it.

So what are the facts. Yes, M.P.s will have to have at least 50% of their electorate to vote in some way for them. Yes, AV will be slightly more costly and will delay election results a bit. Yes, First-Past-The-Post is used more widely than AV around the world. No, AV will not get rid of wasted votes.

So what are the arguments which sway me? Under AV, you basically elect the person who is least unliked, whereas under FPTP you elect the person most liked. That's reasonably simple to me, one is a positive vote and one is a negative vote.

As a second reason to not like AV, if it was a tight race between Labour and the Tories to reach the magic 50% and the first person to be knocked out was the BNP candidate, it could be the BNP voter's second preferences which push the top candidate over the finishing line. That makes me decidedly queasy, and I'd rather those voters didn't have a second say over who wins.

Squiffy.