End pendulum politics: vote Yes to AV on 5 May

We'll have a once in a generation chance to improve our voting system on 5 May, when I urge you to vote yes to the Alternative Vote (AV) system for national elections.

For those of us who've had enough of the years of pendulum politics that the current first past the post system (FPTP) gives us, AV is a vast improvement. Not as good as full proportional representation in my view, but it's the best that the Liberal Democrats could squeeze out of the Tories in the coalition government and certainly better than the zippo, carry-on-with-the old-ways that would have been served up had the Tories got enough votes at the last election to rule alone.

AV is simple: it just means swapping the ‘X’ on your ballot paper for numbers. You can rate the candidates how you see fit and vote for as many or as few candidates as you like. If you only want to support one candidate, you can: just mark an ‘X’ as you did before. AV gives you the freedom to vote sincerely for any number of candidates you feel are up to the job.

With First Past the Post ('FPTP'), you get just one choice. And that has meant that most MPs – 2 out of 3 of those elected in 2010 - get to parliament with less than half of voters on their side.

What will it mean for our MP? We will still have one MP in our area, but they will have to speak for the majority of our community. They will have to work harder and try to represent more of their constituents’ interests. And they won’t be able to take the people for granted any more. Too many MPs have got used to ‘jobs for life’ in the safe seats the current system has created. AV gives these complacent MPs a wake up call.

To see a video of people saying why they will vote for AV, visit: http://www.yestofairervotes.org/people-say-yes

To sign up to the petition letter urging the Advertising Standards Authority to stop the anti AV campaign's misleading advertising, visit: http://www.yestofairervotes.org/demandmore-demandbetter