The Referendum Result: A Silver Lining

It has been a few bruising weeks since the result of the Alternative Vote referendum. Although many of us including myself thought that the result of the referendum would be a disappointment it was probably not an entirely unexpected one. The dark forces of conservatism reigned triumphant on results night however this is hardly a surprise given the widespread misinformation about AV. Both the yes and no campaigns resorted to political mudslinging and in the end it came down to a personality contest in the minds of the public; which basically meant choosing the set of politicians you least hated (that'll be just like First Past The Post then).

The result of the referendum was obviously a blow to us Liberal Democrats and to Nick Clegg. However here are five points of encouragement and a silver lining to look at in these dark clouds of referendum defeat.

Firstly, in 1979 the Welsh people rejected Welsh devolution by 80% to 20% and yet within the space of 18 years support for devolution had increased to such a degree that when the next referendum was called in 1997 it was won with just over 50% of the vote. The gap with the AV referendum result in 2011 was far slimmer with 68% opposing change and 32% supporting it. That's a difference of 2-1 compared to a difference of 4-1 in the Welsh referendum of 1979.

Secondly, we have managed to get what is usually considered a relatively dry topic, electoral reform into the public discourse. Although we didn't exactly get people dancing in the streets over electoral reform we were able to prove that a considerable minority of the population, a third do desire some aspect of electoral reform.

Thirdly, we have said a no to AV, now what about a yes to PR. The former SDP leader, David Owen was the poster boy for this aspect of the no campaign. Lord Owen is obviously a progressive and one that is also committed to proportional representation; however I couldn't help thinking during the referendum campaign that he and all the others who voted no believing that it would help the case for PR were being taken as fools by the no campaign. But assuming this is not the case surely Margaret Beckett, William Hague, John Reid, Ken Clarke, David Blunkett, Nick Griffin and David Owen will now start pushing for PR. Unfortunately of that list, I think that David Owen is the only one with the genuine intention to follow that through.

Fourthly, there is a chance that this could paradoxically strengthen our attempts to democratise the House of Lords as David Cameron will be under more pressure to enact the part of the Coalition Agreement which calls for a "wholly or mainly elected second chamber" elected using proportional representation. However this has always been a difficult road to tread, Nick Clegg will have to succeed where many other progressives have failed.

Finally and perhaps most importantly, we gave people a choice. When New Labour came into office in 1997 they promised to give the people a referendum on changing the voting system and yet after 13 years not even a date was announced for when the referendum should be held. Labour liked people to believe they wanted electoral reform however their inertia shows that they did not. We have wasted no time in giving the British people a say over their electoral system and yes they rejected it but the whole point of believing in liberal democracy is that you are not afraid to give the people a chance to display their democratic viewpoint.