The recent election of Deputy Speakers in the House of Commons was not the subject of headlines though it is the first time that democracy has been allowed to sully the process.
The BBC online report coyly noted that “after a series of five votes by MPs, in which other candidates were eliminated in stages, Mr Hoyle emerged with 161 backers, with Mr Evans on 133 and Ms Primarolo on 128. But Mr Evans was the first to gain the 129 votes deemed necessary under the new system.”
The official UK Parliament website comes clean about the “new system” – see http://www.parliament.uk/business/news/2010/06/mps-elect-deputy-speakers/
It is the Single Transferable Vote preferred by Liberal Democrats for all elections – funny how it’s good enough for MPs’ internal elections but the best we are going to be offered for Commons elections is the much inferior Alternative Vote.
How interesting. And it’s worth adding that AV is clearly good enough for choosing Labour’s next leader but not, it seems, for choosing MPs! I do hope that Labour will support AV in the referendum, since they were pledged to bring it in in their election manifesto.