YES! To Fairer Votes

YES! To Fairer Votes
The YES! To Fairer Votes logo
Motto	"Make your MP work harder"[1]
Type	Political
Legal status	Campaign
Purpose/focus	To change United Kingdom's voting system.
Headquarters	London
Region served	United Kingdom
Official languages	English
Leader	Katie Ghose

YES! To Fairer Votes was an unsuccessful political campaign in the United Kingdom, whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote in favour of the Alternative Vote (AV) in the referendum on Thursday, 5 May 2011.

Contents 1 Structure 2 Political parties supporting YES! To Fairer Votes 3 Other organisations supporting YES! To Fairer Votes 4 Notable individuals supporting YES! To Fairer Votes 5 Campaign Funding 6 Campaign criticism 7 See also 8 References

Structure

YES! To Fairer Votes is a non-profit making organisation established as a company limited by guarantee called Yes In May 2011 Ltd. Its board is chaired by Katie Ghose (Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society). Other members are Pam Giddy (of Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust), Neal Lawson (of Compass), Vicky Seddon (of Unlock Democracy) and John Sharkey (of the Liberal Democrats).^[2]

Political parties supporting YES! To Fairer Votes

The following parties support the change to AV:

• The Liberal Democrats^[3][4]
• Green Party of England and Wales^[5] and the Scottish Green Party^[6][3]
• United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)^[7]
• The Christian People's Alliance^[8]
• The Scottish National Party (SNP)^[3]
• Plaid Cymru^[3]
• Sinn Féin^[9]
• The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)^[10]
• The Alliance Party^[10]

The Labour Party, despite its leader's pro-AV stance, will not be campaigning in this referendum,^[11] and there are opposing Labour Yes and Labour NOtoAV campaigns.

Despite the Conservative Party's formal position against AV, party members aligned to Conservative Action for Electoral Reform, an internal party group in favour of electoral reform, are campaigning in favour.^[12]

Other organisations supporting YES! To Fairer Votes

38 Degrees[8] Compass[13] Ekklesia[14] Electoral Reform Society[15] The Financial Times[16] Friends of the Earth[8] Greenpeace[8] The Guardian[17]

The Independent[18] Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust,[19] The New Economics Foundation[8] ResPublica[20] Take Back Parliament[21] Unlock Democracy[22] World Development Movement[8]

Notable individuals supporting YES! To Fairer Votes

The following people are actively supporting the campaign:

Chris Addison Kris Akabusi Rt Rev David Atkinson[23] Naomi Alderman Jonathan Bartley[24] Martin Bell.[25] Honor Blackman Helena Bonham Carter[25] Billy Bragg;[26] Melvyn Bragg Rt Rev Colin Buchanan;[27] John Cleese Steve Coogan[28] Rt Rev Peter Dawes[23] Greg Dyke[29]

Colin Firth[25] Stephen Fry[30] Bonnie Greer Eddie Izzard[31] Rt Rev Michael Langrish[27] Rt Rev Martyn Jarrett[23] Joanna Lumley[29] Kevin Maguire[32] Art Malik Francesca Martinez John O'Farrell[33] Rt Rev John Packer[23] James Palumbo[25] Rt Rev Michael Perham[23]

Tony Robinson David Schneider,[34] Rt Rev Alan Smith[23] Rt Rev Nigel Stock[23] Polly Toynbee[35] Rt Rev Alan Wilson[23] Richard Wilson[33] Benjamin Zephaniah

Campaign Funding

The Guardian's analysis also showed that the YES! To Fairer Votes campaign had outspent the anti-AV campaign by £3.4m to £2.6m, with most of the funding coming from the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust and the Electoral Reform Society (ERS). George Osborne the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer accused the ERS of having a vested interest in a yes vote, as their commercial subsidiary Electoral Reform Services Ltd (ERSL) was printing the postal ballots for the referendum.^[36] This later turned out to be false as the Press Complaints Commission ruling proved George Osborne to be incorrect. The Sun and Mail subsequently had to print retractions.

Campaign criticism

The YES! To Fairer Votes campaign has been criticised for misleading voters on the '50% support' claim, by not making it clear that this '50% support' is of a mixture of 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. preferences. Furthermore, independent research at the London School of Economics and Political Science has shown that 'more than 4 out of every 10 MPs would still be elected with the endorsement of less than 50 per cent of the voters in their constituency', contrary to YES! To Fairer Votes' claims.^[37]

A number of post mortems of the campaign were written, all highly critical of the way the campaign was run. Of these the most notable were Anthony Barnett: ^[38] who criticised one of the major funders, the Joseph Rowntree Reform trust for lack of oversight and scrutiny of its huge donation. Andy May ^[39] who drew attention to a number of strategic blunders in the campaign and criticised the campaign director and senior staff. His view was corroborated by another insider account ^[40] by former staff member James Graham.

See also

• NOtoAV, the opposing campaign group

References