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20 April 2011

There’s nothing “non-partisan” about No to AV

No to AV should come clean: it’s a Conservative campaign – just admit it!

By Duncan Robinson

The Conservatives have launched the latest video in their campaign against AV.

The video is slick, and its message is simple: those who come first won’t always win under AV. Like most of the No to AV campaign’s messages, it’s crude but effective. It is also the same coherent, if slightly misleading line that the No to AV campaign uses in its recent video.

This is not surprising. There are, after all, extremely close links between the Conservative Party and the No to AV campaign.

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CCHQ recently very generously offered to let the No campaigners use the party’s phone bank in Millbank to canvass support. The No to AV campaign is paid for by Conservative backers and staffed by the party’s supporters. Indeed, I hear that one former Labour adviser left the No campaign after he grew tired of taking orders from Tories.

There is nothing wrong with this, but No to AV should come clean. Despite its claims, it’s not a “non-partisan” campaign, it’s a Conservative campaign. John Reid, John Prescott and all other prominent Labour supporters of the No campaign are simply the useful idiots of the Conservative Party.

A No on AV is a Yes to the Tories.