Jim McConalogue: The voters should reject this farce over electoral reform

Contrast that with the existing first-past-the-post system which has actually been very effective throughout British history.

Importantly, it pays to contrast the policy on the AV referendum with the one pledged on European Union Lisbon treaty and tell me which one the British people actually want. As one Tory MP has already claimed, in line with TaxPayers' Alliance analysis, the Government would be spending 100m on a referendum that "nobody out there wanted".

Look to the recent Australian elections under AV, where they now have a Labour Prime Minister even though the Conservative candidate, Tony Abbott, received the most first preference votes and should be Prime Minister. They now have a Labour PM, Julia Gillard, because, under AV, the Labour candidate was assigned many second and third preference votes from voters voting for losing candidates. Still, each to their own.

In the United Kingdom, there is a strong party-political biased advantage in the proposal on the AV favouring smaller parties at the General Election, including the very party that has now put forward the proposals – yes, the Liberal Democrats. What's worse, the AV system does not mean a move towards greater proportionality – in many circumstances, it is even less proportional than first-past-the-post system.

The current official positions of the main political parties on the AV system are radically different – if not, completely opposing – to the pledges made in their own political manifestos less than one year ago.

The Conservative Party manifesto actually stated: "We support the first-past-the-post system for Westminster elections because it gives voters the chance to kick out a government they are fed up with." Yet its leadership and majority of MPs passed the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill at Second Reading on Monday of last week to

give people the choice over an undesirable AV system.

The Liberal Democrats' manifesto said that it would "change politics and abolish safe seats by introducing a fair, more proportional voting system for MPs. Our preferred Single Transferable Vote system gives people the choice between candidates as well as parties". It dismissed any notion of the Alternative Vote, an equally undesirable system with equally negative consequences.

As for the mainstream party that has pledged the Alternative Vote, the last Labour Party manifesto pledged a commitment to "referenda, held on the same day, for moving to the Alternative Vote for elections to the House of Commons and to a democratic and accountable Second Chamber".

When it came to the commitment to implement that undesirable pledge, they opposed a referendum on the AV system in the Commons – a welcome U-turn.

The reason why we are forced into a referendum is that a deal was struck between the Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives in the coalition agreement, a part of which meant that the two measures (one on AV, one on culling MPs) had to be brought before the House together because otherwise the Liberal Democrats would not secure their unusual referendum on AV.

There has been no pre-legislative scrutiny on the proposals to have a referendum on AV. If there had been, I very much doubt the proposals would have been put forward in Parliament.

It is clear that insufficient background for reasons have been given to hold a referendum on AV before it was presented to the people and Parliament – compare that with proposals on any other referendum in the United Kingdom, which have often been necessarily subject to initial public consultation, a White Paper and pledged in political party manifesto commitments.

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg incorrectly insists the change is necessary to restore public faith in politics – the change will further damage the political system itself and the public faith that the electorate have in this nonsensical third-rate politics.

If there is to be a referendum, the Alternative Vote referendum should have been held on a mutually-agreed date between the Houses of Parliament and the devolved administrations in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – rather than allowing the Deputy Prime Minister to set the rules in secret and with political motive at the time of other elections.

It is a farce and the British people must not accept the Alternative Vote system, which is about to be spuriously presented to them in a referendum as proper electoral reform or "restoring faith in politics" but which will rob them of their entitlement to a proper and British democratic election for decades to come.

Jim McConalogue is spokesman for The European Foundation.