Last week’s AV results at 2 to 1 against was a victory for common sense.  Our electoral system has served us well for centuries and is a vital part of our democracy which was first established by Oliver Cromwell.  It ensures decisive government and has got us through wars and great depressions, and is a model very much admired and copied around the world.

If you go to a horse race and you back a horse that comes in third you don’t declare yourself the winner and take the prize money – why should it be any different with our voting system?  My only fear now is that to pacify the liberals the government will promote changes in the House of Lords, bringing in elective peers using the AV system.  This will be a ridiculous waste of money and time, as the second chamber is there to serve as a check and balance against parliament, and as such its members must be free of electoral pressures and party whips.

The country has far greater things to worry about.