Taking Back Parliament

Yesterday in Edinburgh about 300 joined the March to Take Back Parliament and get a fairer voting system. We were wanting fairer votes. The march is one of the shortest I have ever gone on, starting outside City Chambers and going straight by the shortest route to the Assembly Buildings.

Yes I know we Lib Dems are in coalition with the Conservatives in Westminster who are offering a referendum on Alternative Vote, which they are more than likely to campaign largely against once the referendum is called. As my sign (above says) "I want fair votes. AV isn't it" because that is what I still believe.

I stood for election on May 6th on our manifesto which said that Single Transferable Vote was the Lib Dems preferred voting system. I've been saying that for over 22 years. I'll keep fighting for that.

One of the weirdest things about the march was marching down the mound and turning beside me to see Mark Lazarowicz walking there, someone I'd spent some time in the last couple of years trying to unseat in Edinburgh North and Leith. However, after some of the complaints from some of his parliamentary colleagues in favour of the non-proportional, not fair First Past the Post system and against any form of Proportional Representation it was good to see a senior Labour figure in the capital speaking out in favour of PR. It really is a sign of the new politics that parties that have been fighting hard side by side can agree on key issues of change that is needed.