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Tories count the Alternative Vote leaflets

Michael Crick | 10:12 UK time, Tuesday, 8 March 2011

The Conservative high command is keeping a very close tally, I'm told, of how many anti-AV leafets are ordered from Tory HQ by each local constituency association in the run-up to May's referendum.

The leaflets can be purchased at a cost of just £10 per thousand, I hear, which would work out at about £300 for a whole constituency.

A Conservative source in Downing Street source tells me:

"When our MPs in the tea room complain we're not running a good campaign, we can turn round and say: 'Hang on, your local party's only ordered 103 of our leaflets so far!'"

Comments

  • Comment number 1.

    They're not great leaflets though, and having a great big "Conservative" logo emblazoned on them could be seen as counter-productive.

  • Comment number 2.

    CONSERVATIVE LEAFLETS DO NOT COME WELL RECOMMENDED



    Nuff sed.

  • Comment number 3.

    Comparing a general election with the the Olympics was a poor effort by the PM imho. I believe his objection to the AV is more to do with the careers and strategic deployment of politicians than the rights of the voters to have their votes count for something.

    I hope the Conservatives don't win on this issue and the AV comes in. It will be the first time millions of voters will actually be able to believe their votes count for something.

    In my constituency Brown personally over-ruled the local party in order to get one of his supporters, the now R.Hon. C.L., into government. Even local Labour voters felt bad, but for those of us who don't vote Labour it was just another reminder of how the present system that creates safe seats that are used to get the party's choice rather than the constituency's choice of candidate elected, effectively disenfranchises thousands of voters in the 'safe seat'.

    Cameron is wrong, Clegg and his party, at least on this issue, are right and should be given credit for taking a stand to give democracy to the millions who's votes are simply worthless under the present system.

  • Comment number 4.

    A Yes to AV will be good moment to sell gilts and sterling with a long-term view.

    AV will enable labour te regain power and stay in government for generations to come because it will do quiet, covert deals with libdems to advise their respective core voters to put the other party second on the ballot form and this will work for labour beacuse it has so sucessfully built a huge client state existing of a public sector workforce of almost 6 million and millions on benefits.

    Maybe readers here dismiss my argument. But they should think twice why The Guardian, which enjoyed a windfall through all the public sector jobs ads that labour chanelled to it, is so in favour of AV. The client state and AV will put labour in office for many, many years.

  • Comment number 5.

    TMR " the present system that creates safe seats"

    I can’t understand this argument that AV would mean the end of safe seats. It seems like wishful thinking. That is not the experience of Australia, which currently operates AV. You could as well argue that at least under FPTP Labour was defeated in Dewsbury by an opponent who won 35% of the vote, whereas this might not have happened if the opponent had needed to win 50% of the vote.

  • Comment number 6.

    This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

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