The only thing unBritish about the referendum is the ‘No’ campaign

By Stace Williams / @stackee

I have been watching the the AV campaigns with great interest these past few months. Well, I say interest – disdain, disbelief and dejection would be more appropriate given the misinformation and lies spewing forth from both sides.

But, over the last several days, a few lines have been uttered that have offended my delicate, Welsh sensibilities. You see, I don’t really like members of our government being unBritish.

John Reid, in his infinite ‘wisdom’, took to the platform with David Cameron to campaign against the introduction of the alternative vote and declared that “above all AV is not British” a sentiment echoed by William Hague a day or so later.

So we didn’t create the system – so what? Chinese and Indian food, Windows, Apple, football – we didn’t create these either, but they are an integral part of everyday British life. Like most, normally I would acknowledge this was a silly statement and simply ignore it.

But, couple with this Lord Forsyth’s ‘outrage’ that the Celtic vote may swing the referendum and we hit an all too common problem – the Anglocentric nature of the Conservative Party.

It’s obvious when looking at the Tory-led NotoAV campaign that they have not broken out of their own microcosmic world – if they are so worried about the votes of the Celts upsetting their daily routine, why did they make no effort whatsoever with their Welsh broadcast? It is, quite literally, offensive to look at.

But putting aside AV for a moment, Forsyth’s attitude – and that of many others slamming the Scots – shows a clear lack of understanding of how devolved governments actually work.

Maybe we should forgive them their ignorance – after all, the Conservatives don’t have many of their own sitting in on the decisions in devolved parliaments – though their lack of knowledge could explain why they’ll never get the increase in numbers they believe they are entitled to.

Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland all have a devolved government and these – as most of us know – make the decisions on a number of key areas including (but not limited to) agriculture, health, education and transport. These decisions are taken by, respectively, AMs, MSPs and MLAs.

These representatives are elected separately to the constituency MPs that sit in the House of Commons – the reason us damned Celts have a handle on different electoral systems.

And our MPs? They are there to hold the government to account on the issues we have no say in; foreign affairs, social security, defence, budgets and electoral reform.

On these decisions, AMs, MSPs and MLAs are powerless – so why say our referendum choice will damage relations with the English?

There are problems with having devolved powers, there is no denying that – we are all aware of the infamous West Lothian question – but this is entirely irrelevant when it comes to asking the British people which system they would like to use to elect their MPs.

Why should our vote on these matters be considered less than that of the English people when we have as much a right as any to make a decision on the way our representatives are elected?

If we want AV (or similarly, if we don’t) there should be no issue in us turning out at the ballot box and casting our vote accordingly.

This is a matter that affects all countries equally, and playing the electorate for fools will not do their cause any favours.