Nick Clegg launches Lib Dem election campaign in Cornwall

Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg was in Cornwall today to launch the national Liberal Democrat election campaign. He spoke at the Eden Project about the faults with both of the other main parties.

Nick lambasted the Labour Party for their failures in local government as well as the Conservatives for the waste they have presided over in councils across the UK. He singled out Cornwall's decision to hire taxis to ferry tea and coffee between office buildings and attempts to raise council tax year after year. He praised Cornwall's Liberal Democrats for our success in freezing tax bills and investment in services.

Nick was introduced by Jeremy Rowe, Leader of the Lib Dems on Cornwall Council. Jeremy set out our local ambitions locally and the investment that we would be making in repairing roads, cutting parking charges and tackling anti-social behaviour. In contrast, he said, the Conservatives had wasted money on Plymouth's attempts to host the world cup and couldn't even get the basics like emptying bins right.


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Tory MP Geoffrey Cox says boundary changes are 'zombie proposals'

At least one Conservative MP is prepared to break ranks with the Prime Minister and express his opposition to the proposed boundary changes.

Geoffrey Cox is MP for Torridge and West Devon and would see part of his current seat amalgamated with North East Cornwall to form the Devonwall seat. In an interview with the BBC, Mr Cox says that he would vote against the proposals.

Although Tory Party Chairman Grant Shapps has claimed that some sort of deal could still be done to offer the Lib Dems party funding reform in return for the new boundaries, Nick Clegg has been insistent that there can be no 'cash for constituencies' deal and that the Lib Dems will vote against the change.

See the full BBC report here.

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Nick Clegg says sorry for tuition fees broken pledge (remixed version)

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Devonwall - glad the threat is gone, but little to celebrate

I could be gloating about today's announcement by Nick Clegg that Lib Dem MPs will be voting against the new boundaries (including Devonwall) thereby all but ensuring that they won't be in place for the next election. I predicted that the next general election would be fought on the same boundaries as the last way back in September last year.

The fact that I'm not is for two reasons. First, because the relief may only be temporary. Clegg has said that the changes to constituencies should be stopped only until after the next election. It may well be that any pause will mean their abandonment, but it could equally be that we will have to fight this battle again in a few years time.

Second, this victory comes at a heavy price. We haven't seen off Devonwall because it is and always was a ridiculous notion that ignores centuries of history and culture and divides communities. It has been lost in a revenge attack by Nick Clegg on the Conservatives for their failure to back the coalition agreement on Lords reform. Cameron couldn't deliver his troops and so Clegg has made explicit that the Lib Dems will scupper a move which would make it easier for the Tories to secure an overall majority in the future.

I hope that the coalition survives. For all that I hate some of things that it has done, I still think it's the best chance of securing the economic recovery that is the number one priority of the country. I also think that we have to be a mature enough democracy to expect two parties to be able to work together for the common good in cases where no one wins an overall majority at an election. If the leaders starts chucking their toys now, then it makes a future coalition of any combination more difficult to achieve.

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Wiggins turns his podium into a platform

Huge congratulations to Bradley Wiggins on his gold medal of course, but also good on him for using his place on top of the podium as a platform to talk about cycling safety. Whatever your views on compulsory cycle helmets and the like, there is nothing wrong with the Olympic and Tour de France champion using his moment in the spotlight to say what he believes.

Some will suggest that it is not for him (or Lizzie Armistead, who has said similar) to talk about politics. But if they know what they are talking about - and as road racers they clearly do - then they have every right to say it, even from the podium steps.

There have been plenty of politicians of all parties, including Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and William Hague, who have used their twitter accounts to hitch themselves to the gold medal bandwagon, tweeting within seconds of the result. If politicians want to get involved in spot, then it is surely fair for sportsmen and women to dip into politics.

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Cornish Lib Dems campaign for fair pay for Cornwall

Cornwall Liberal Democrats are seeking the backing of the council for the Fair Pay for Cornwall campaign in opposition to plans for regional or local pay agreements. The issue will be debated at the full council meeting at the beginning of next month.

The proposal for regional pay was first put forward by the last Labour government which introduced it for some civil servants. But Tory Chancellor George Osborne has followed this up by asking different pay review boards to consider it for their areas.

Regional (or local) pay schemes would be bad for Cornwall in many ways. It would almost certainly mean lower pay deals for public sector workers despite living costs being as high as most of the South East. House prices are high and the lack of decent public transport makes owning a car almost essential in most parts of Cornwall. Water bills and the high cost of accessing entertainment and leisure also mean families would struggle if wages were cut.

And the slightly higher level of public sector pay also ensures that private sector wages cannot fall too far - preventing a race to the bottom. Cornwall is already the only part of the UK which is in receipt of EU structural funding because our income levels are so low. Cutting public sector pay would exacerbate the situation.

I very much hope that we will get the support of both Independent and MK groups when this matter is debated at full council. I hope too that there will be sensible Conservatives who will also back it. Unfortunately it seems the Council Leader is a lost cause on this. When asked at a public meeting in Launceston about the subject, his only answer was that he "tends to be in favour of anything with the word local in it..."

There is also national Liberal Democrat support for the campaign. During his visit to Cornwall last week, party president Tim Farron MP joined the campaign and, when I asked him about it at a conference on Saturday, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also said that he would not be backing regional pay.

UPDATE (19/6) - Coverage of Nick Clegg's latest comments in the Mirror and the local angle in today's WMN.

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Discussing pasty tax with Nick Clegg

This morning, during his visit to Cornwall, together with Mark Muncey of the Cornish Pasty Association and Steve Gilbert MP, I had a discussion with Nick Clegg about the pasty tax.

We explained the threat to Cornish businesses of the proposed tax including the likely loss of up to 1100 jobs in the pasty industry itself and the wider supply chain as well as more than £35 million from the Cornish economy.

We also explained that the current proposal is unworkable and would lead to huge confusion. This wasn't a plea just for the pasty industry, but for bakers across the country who produce different types of savouries.

Nick was very open to the arguments that we made and receptive to the ideas being put forward. It was a constructive meeting which I hope will lead to a rethink of the proposals in government. There is no doubt that the current VAT rules are a bit of a mess with a disparity between fish and chips on the one hand and supermarket rotisserie chickens on the other. In the middle of all this, local bakeries have been caught and look set to lose either way. There is clearly an option to add VAT to any product which is kept hot and to exempt those which are simply hot as they have come out of the oven but are cooling.

The formal consultation on the proposed changes ended today and I hope that there will be a positive announcement in the near future. I think our discussion today was a positive contribution.

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Clegg and Cameron promise to "give it 110%"

Nick Clegg and David Cameron's relaunch in a tractor factory clearly wasn't designed to get the hard left on board. Instead it looked like they had been learning their lines from Frank Bruno, or a particularly out of his depth football caretaker manager.

"I know results have gone against us in the last few weeks, but the lads have promised to give it 110% til the end of the season."

What with Nick Clegg's dodgy estuary English accent and the pledges to 'redouble our efforts' (despite a few weeks ago saying they were doing all they can already), it may as well have been scripted by Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse.

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MPs vote on #pastytax

MPs tonight voted by 295 to 260 against the Cornish Lib Dem amendment to abandon the Government's proposal for the pasty tax which will cost Cornish jobs.

During a debate on the budget VAT measures, there were seven MPs called to speak on the issue of static caravans and five on the subject of church alterations, but only one (Stephen) on the issue of the pasty tax.

The resultant vote was a lot closer than might have been predicted. Labour (sensibly) withdrew their own amendment on the subject which was not so well supported and allowed the vote to take place on the Cornish amendment. All six Cornish MPs backed this amendment - which shows both solidarity and hope for the future that the Government might still listen to reason.

The fight will go on as Dan Rogerson will be taking a group of pasty makers to meet with a Treasury Minister soon to explain why the proposals will hurt Cornish jobs.

But as things stand, I won't be buying Nick Clegg a pasty again. (Pic shows Nick eating a pasty I bought for him while talking to Cornish Lib Dems in Bodmin.)

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Pasty Tax campaign to go to Council

Together with Lib Dem colleagues, I have submitted a motion on the proposed pasty tax to go to the next Cornwall Council meeting on May 15th. The aim is to get formal council support for the campaign and to write to the Chancellor urging him to reconsider the move which will cost local jobs.

The full text of the motion reads:

• Cornwall Council notes the announcement by George Osborne in his recent budget of plans to impose VAT at 20% on the sale of pasties sold hot from the oven as well as other savoury snacks.
• Cornwall Council notes that the pasty industry is a successful part of Cornwall's manufacturing sector worth around £150m to the Cornish economy and employing thousands of people both directly and indirectly in Cornwall.
• Cornwall Council further notes that a traditional Cornish pasty is a wholesome and healthy food made with high quality ingredients and is eaten every day by hundreds of thousands of people.
• Cornwall Council welcomes the efforts being made by the Cornish Pasty Association together with accountants, business experts, local MPs and others to join together to fight the pasty tax.
• Cornwall Council shares the concerns of pasty manufacturers that the imposition of 20% VAT on the sale of pasties will lead to a fall of around 15-20% on sales and consequent job losses in Cornwall.
• Cornwall Council therefore resolves to ask the Leader of the Council, in consultation with the Director of Resources, to write to the Chancellor setting out this council's opposition to the pasty tax and calling on the Government to abandon the proposal.

And in today's Western Morning News, the paper highlights the potential backlash on Nick Clegg if the government presses ahead with the pasty tax.

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Clegg launches £1 bn programme to get young people earning or learning

This email has just landed in my inbox:

Dear Alex,

Today I have launched the Youth Contract, a £1bn programme to get every unemployed young person earning or learning again before long-term damage is done.

We cannot afford to lose the skills and talent of our young people – right when we need them most. We need the next generation to help us build a new economy.

Across the UK, youth unemployment has risen to 21.9% and in Cornwall, there are currently 2985 young people claiming Job Seekers Allowance. We owe it to them to make sure that even in tough economic times, we will do everything we can to find them a job, training or education.

That is why today I have committed the Coalition to investing £1bn to tackle youth unemployment. You can read more about the contract here, but it includes:

• A work experience place for every unemployed 18 to 24 year old who wants one
• 410,000 new work places over the next three years
• 20,000 more incentive payments to encourage employers to take on young apprentices
• 250,000 new work experience placements
• And because we know businesses are struggling to take young people on, we will pay half their basic wage for six months

Young people have been hit particularly hard in the recession, but even in the boom years, Labour failed to tackle the issue. During Labour’s 13 years, youth unemployment rose by 40%. With Liberal Democrats in Government, we won’t allow the children brought up in the boom to bear the brunt of the bust. The next generation must not pay the price for my generation’s mistakes. So the Coalition Government won’t sit on our hands and let a generation fall behind.



Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister

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Fed up with Council delay, I have written to Nick Clegg about second home voter registration

Two and a half months ago, Cornwall Council's officers were told to prepare a letter to send to the Government on the issue of second home owners registering to vote in elections in Cornwall. To date, despite repeated promises, no letter has been prepared or sent and so I have today sent my own letter in my capacity as Vice Chair of the Council's Electoral Review Panel. It would clearly have had more impact coming from the Council Chief Executive but my patience has been exhausted.

According to officers, the letter wasn't sent over the summer because they wanted to wait until MPs returned from their summer holidays. I don't believe that this excuse stacks up. For a start, Parliament didn't go into recess until some three weeks after the decision to send the letter was taken. And anyway, just because MPs are on holidy doesn't mean that the whole Government grinds to a halt. Nick Clegg (the minister responsible) was clearly on duty for the majority of the summer and, even if he wasn't, I would trust civil servants to keep it safe until he returned.

If the letter had been sent earlier then it is possible that legal clarity could have been given by an amendment to the voting reform bill currently going through Parliament. However that opportunity has now passed.

In my letter (copied below) I have been careful to stick to the position that what is needed is clarity in the law - whatever side of the fence the Government chooses to come down on.

As soon as I get a reply, I'll post it here.

Dear Nick
It was good to catch up at conference. I hope that you enjoyed your trip to New York. I write in my capacity as the Vice Chair of Cornwall Council's Electoral Review Panel to ask you to consider clarifying the law over the rights of second home owners to register to vote in the UK.
This is an issue of some considerable concern in Cornwall where as many as 10% of all properties are used as 'second homes' and, should all those who use them choose to register to vote from these addresses then Council, Parliamentary and other elections could be significantly affected by people who spend as little as one week a year in the local area.
The law at present is confusing both for electoral registration officers and for electors. The Electoral Commission publishes guidance on its website which seems clear enough - that a person may register to vote at a second home only if they can be said to be resident there full-time, that certain people (such as students) can genuinely have two full-time addresses but that purely recreational second homes are unlikely to count.
However, this clarity is not backed up in law. Indeed, the law is a morass of often contradictory statements. There appears to be little in law to assist electoral registration officers to consider whether or not to allow registration in individual cases and so refusals to register are very few and far between.
I am therefore writing to you in your capacity as minister responsible for constitutional affairs to ask for legal clarity to be given in the form of statutory guidance. My personal view is that no second home registration should be allowed save for genuine two homers - students and so on. However, even if you decide that some other should be the law, I believe that it would be in the interests of all electoral registration officers and public confidence in elections if the law was clarified.
I would be happy to meet with you or one of your colleagues to discuss this issue at your convenience.

With best wishes

Alex

Alex Folkes
Vice Chair, Electoral Review Panel, Cornwall Council

Presidents, BOTYs and Nick Clegg's speech - what conference meant for me

I'm back in Lanson after a weekend at the Lib Dem conference. Listening to the radio on the way home, it seems that most people felt the same way about Nick's speech as I did - it was governmental. On one hand that's fabulous. We're in Government and the Deputy PM was the one delivering our Leader's speech. On the other hand, it was pretty low key stuff and many commentators claim that it could have been given equally by Cameron.

I don't think it could be. Apart from anything else, Nick made it clear that he opposes the concept of small government for small government's sake. We may cut the size of the UK government but only in response to the need created by Labour's economic crisis.

He also talked about genuine additional powers for local government - announcing the power to borrow against future income to fund development - and didn't mention the Big Society once.

And he wasn't subtle. 'Stick with us' was the plea to voters and activists alike. He made it clear that he didn't want to be in coalition with the Conservatives forever, but was equally clear that the minimum commitment was for five years.

Within the hall there was hardly gushing enthusiasm for the speech. But then Nick is not a rabble rouser and he had a very difficult message to deliver. I thought he did the job very well in the main. I believe that he could have done a little more to assuage concerns expressed earlier in the day over academies and free schools, but that aside it was competent enough.

For another view on Nick's speech, it's worth reading Alex Foster's blog on the subject.

The other big (in Lib Dem terms) news of the day was the withdrawal from the Lib Dem Presidential race before it got started of Jason Zadrozny. Jason says he had already got the necessary nomination signatures but decided to pull out in favour of Susan Kramer. Curiously, he did this only a couple of hours after writing a piece for Lib Dem Voice on why he would be the best candidate for President. I'm not sure what his thinking is (other than the likelihood that he would not win) but I think that the contest has lost a candidate with a particular angle and will be poorer for it.

And finally, I failed to blog before, but I won the Blog of the Year award for the best blog written by a Lib Dem holding public office. I was very chuffed to receive the award from Sue Garden, wife of the late (Lord) Tim Garden in whose name the award is made. Not expecting to win, I talked rubbish for three minutes as an acceptance speech - a concept that will be totally familiar to council colleagues.

Apologies for the pic featuring a very unflattering image of me. I handed my camera over to someone else and they returned it with 20 pictures taken - 19 of which were out of focus. (But that's better than my average at times...)

Nick Clegg - supremely relaxed about life

Yesterday, Nick Clegg declared himself 'supremely relaxed' about the independence of the Lib Dems. Certainly that is the image that he is portraying around the conference.

He is appearing without a tie on more occasions than with and is spending a lot of time laughing and joking.

At his Q & A session yesterday he batted away critical questions with aplomb, whilst also managing to drop some nuggets of welcome news in the laps of his audience. Would the Lib Dems be getting into bed with the Tories in a more formal way at the next election? Not a chance said Clegg. We will stand in every single seat. Cue roar of applause.

Back on Sunday he was happy to joke about his Cabinet colleagues and to drop snippets of gossip into his speech. Nothing to scare the horses, of course, but a far change from the stilted civil service language he used when talking to councillors just after the coalition was formed.

After his session on the stage yesterday, Nick was having another chat - this time with young members and with wife Miriam in tow. Miriam is, famously, her own woman and (rightly) wasn't about to muck about her work schedule during the general election to spend the whole time on the stump. But she too was in supremely relaxed mode yesterday, laughing and joking with her husband for the snappers.

The big speech is this afternoon - much earlier in the week than is usual because of a government trip to the UN. No doubt relaxation will continue.

Nick Clegg's second PMQs

I think we can safely say that the civil servants will be a lot happier with Nick Clegg's second attempt at PMQs than they were with his first. After that event, they had to cope with his declaration of the Iraq war as illegal (it was, but the Government doesn't like to say so) and clarify that only the children's wing of Yarls Wood Detention Centre would be closing.

This time round, Nick coped admirably with a truly terrible Jack Straw. For someone who built his reputation on forensic questioning, Straw has been awful as a stand in for the stand in Labour leader Harriet Harman. His six questions were all on the subject of Andy Coulson and phone hacking and he failed to land a single blow. Straw's tactic was to seek to get Clegg to say whether or not he believed Coulson on the issue. Clegg played a straight bat to every question saying that it was for the Police to investigate and Coulson had denied any wrong-doing. He didn't back Coulson, but then how could he have done so? In among the answers was a very good line about Gordon Brown being the first to call Coulson to wish him well, and this took the wind out of Labour sails. Clegg's pay off line was even better, questioning why Straw was asking about these allegations rather than Afghanistan or Pakistan.

For the rest of the session, Clegg shone. He was light hearted and witty in replying to a light hearted plea from Labour MP Ian Davidson for a birthday present of two aircraft carriers. He sounded dourly serious in replying to a Tory who believes that chinese lanterns are the biggest threat to western civilisation. And most of all he took the fight to Labour and their attempts to claim that the economy only went into freefall on May 7th.

There was a Cornish interest in PMQs as SE Cornwall MP Sherryl Murray asked a question about foreign nationals who come to the UK for medical treatment but then don't pay their bills.

The final question to Clegg came from anti-coalition Tory backbencher Christopher Chope who asked whether significant amendments or defeat for the voting reform and constituencies bill would spell the end to the coalition. Clegg assured him that it would not. I'm not entirely sure that the mainstream Lib Dem Party would be happy to stay in Government if the key demand of a referendum on electoral reform was lost.

UPDATE - Paul Waugh has highlighted the Clegg answer to Chope saying that it might well be taken by rebellious Tory backbenchers as the green light to vote against the AV referendum. Yes, I think it could be. But I also think that this could be an exceptionally clever piece of positioning by Nick Clegg. There is no doubt that the majority of the Liberal Democrats would be up in arms about the prospect of staying in coalition with the Tories if there were to be no AV referendum. Clegg can 'listen' to them on this issue and harden up his stance with his Tory colleagues. This might be seen to give the vital reassurance that Lib Dem backbenchers need on the coalition. Of course, this could alternatively have been a massive faux pas which ends up losing the referendum and splitting the Party. Who knows?

Clegg to hand back second home profit

Full marks to Lib Dem Leader Nick Clegg for keeping his promise to hand back the profit he makes when he sells his MP's second home in Sheffield.

When the expenses scandal broke last year, Nick came out with a very clear line - that he did not think it right for MPs to be in the property speculation business. He regarded the second home he bought with taxpayers' money as being on loan to him and he pledged to return any profit he made when he came to sell it to taxpayers.

Now that expenses rules have changed, MPs can only claim rent and so Nick is selling his second home and will be renting in the city.

The pics are of Nick and his wife Miriam at the house in Sheffield on polling day back in May. Miriam hosted a coffee and cakes party for all the journalists who had been with Nick for the election campaign tour.

Will this be the end of the affair?

Labour's cynical decision to vote against the AV referendum could potentially spell the end of the coalition.

The Bill will come before the House of Commons to vote in the autumn and Labour MPs will be whipped to oppose a measure they themselves had in their manifesto. Their official reasoning is that the Bill will also include plans to reduce the number of MPs. But I believe that their real motive is that they want to cause as much friction as possible in the coalition, perhaps even to break it apart.

Of course, Labour on their own cannot defeat the Government. But there are also 44 MPs, mainly Conservatives who have backed a Commons motion opposing the timing of the AV referendum. Some of these will follow the three line whip imposed on Government MPs on this issue and others will vote in favour of amendment on the referendum timing but back down when it comes to the core principle. There may also be a few Labour MPs who think it is wrong to vote against a plan they campaigned on just three months ago. But it is still a dicey moment for Cameron and Clegg.

If the AV Bill fails then I cannot see any hope for the coalition to remain. Staying in Government with the Conservatives in such circumstances would certainly split the Lib Dems, many of whom would see the desire for bums around the Cabinet table as being less important than remaining true to a fundamental (perhaps the fundamental) policy of the party. AV is not the electoral reform that most Lib Dems want, but it is emblematic of the relationship and no amount of persuasion will convince us otherwise.

Come the autumn, it will be the turn of the whips to take centre stage. But before that there will be a long hard summer for Nick Clegg and David Cameron as they try to keep the coalition together.

Davis lambasts the 'brokeback coalition'

Former Tory Leadership contender David Davis has been overheard describing the government as 'the brokeback coalition'.

After Wednesday, which was described by some journalists as being the worst day yet for the coalition, comes a couple of tirades from the different wings of the coalition. I'm sure that this is the start of a silly season which will sorely test Clegg and Cameron.

On Wednesday, David Cameron forgot when America entered World War 2, Nick Clegg was rebuked for describing the invasion of Iraq as illegal, caused a spat over the date of troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and had to be corrected when he said that the Yarl's Wood detention centre would be closed down (it's just the family wing which will be).

Today we had Lib Dem MP Tim Farron describing the Tories as 'toxic' and Simon Hughes saying that if we were not in coalition, the Lib Dems would not have voted for the Academies Bill.

Tonight, the Financial Times is claiming that former Tory frontbencher David Davis described the relationship between Cameron and Clegg as 'the Brokeback coalition' - a reference to the gay cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain. (link is to Sky report to avoid paywall).

It ought to be pointed out that David has denied making the comments but three FT journalists all claim he has not been misquoted.

Nick Clegg at Lib Dem local government conference

Nick Clegg was the star speaker at today's Liberal Democrat local government conference in London. Nick gave a good speech telling a packed and appreciative audience about the progress with the coalition to date and the difficult decisions that are coming up in the near future.

The funniest moment of the event was when Nick was asked about the timing of the AV referendum. He started his answer by saying:

"I hope to be able to make an announcement about that sometime in the..."

At that point, he stopped and apologised for sounding just like ministers always do. He then went on to give a much fuller explanation about what he hoped to be able to do and when. The key point he made is, of course, that he hopes to be able to set the ball rolling sooner rather than later, but also that he was aiming for a post-legislative referendum. In other words, rather than have a Bill enabling a referendum, then the referendum itself, and then another piece of legislation to shift to AV, there would only need to be a single Act of Parliament. That helps to speed the process along massively and helps to avoid any change (if the voters approve) being delayed until after the next election.

It was a strong performance from Nick. The tone of the questions seemed to imply that the councillors present were concerned about the implementation of plans rather than the plans themselves.

The other highlight of the conference was the presence of Education Secretary Michael Gove who answered questions from a group of councillors. This was the first instance of a Tory or Lib Dem speaking at an event hosted by the other coalition partner that I know of. There is a bit of speculation about whether Nick will go to the Tory conference this autumn - I know nothing about that - but this was certainly a positive toe in the water if that really is the plan.

Certainly the recent local election results have been generally positive for the Lib Dems and this conference showed that Lib Dem councillors are currently a pretty buoyant group.

Clegg signals no 'Devonwall' seat

Nick Clegg has set out the Government's plans for electoral reform and the best news is that there is enough flexibility that a cross border 'Devonwall' seat seems unlikely to be foisted upon us.

A bill to allow a referendum on changing the voting system to give electors more choice and to cut the number of MPs will apparently be introduced sooner rather than later with a referendum planned for next May.

The change in the voting system - to the Alternative Vote - will ask electors in future to rank the candidates in order of preference - 1,2,3 etc. This means that there will be no more wasted votes as, until one candidate gets more than half the votes cast, the bottom candidate is excluded and their votes redistributed according to each elector's next choice. So even if you think that, say, the Green Party have no chance of winning, you can still vote for them knowing that if they cannot win, your vote will then be transferred to your next favoured party.

The downside is that you still only get a choice of one candidate per party. So if your party insists on putting forward a candidate you don't approve of, you have no chance to vote for another candidate from that party.

The other problem with AV is that it is not a proportional system - so some parties will continue to be over-represented and others will still not get as many seats as votes. But majoritarian systems like AV and the current First Past the Post also see fewer women, ethnic minorities and young people elected as Julia Goldsworthy points out.

(UPDATE - Stephen Tall suggests reasons why David Cameron won't campaign against a change to AV)

I have blogged about the reduction in the number of MPs before. The risk is that the system will be so inflexible that Cornwall will not have a round number of MPs. Instead, part of the Duchy will have to join with part of either Plymouth or Devon in a cross border 'Devonwall' seat. Such a move would be an anathema to people in both Cornwall and Devon. But Nick Clegg has signalled that there will be some flexibility in the new scheme and so the chances of a Devonwall seat are considerably lessened. I know that the Cornish Lib Dem MPs will campaign to make sure that there is no cross border seat. I hope that our local Conservative MPs will also speak up on the issue.

Labour, incidentally, are complaining that reducing the number of MPs and trying to make seats more equal in size is 'blatant gerrymandering'. The motivation is far from biased however. How can seats in Wales be, on average, around 15,000 voters smaller than those in England. This is an anomaly that should be, and will be, addressed by this move.