The Conservative party recently launched their own “No to AV” campaign, and displayed their arguments against the alternative vote on their website. I’m very interested in voting reform, so was keen to see what they had to say. I was very disappointed so discover that their arguments against AV do not make sense. Rather than presenting some of the disadvantages of AV (no system is perfect) or even an honest reason why the Conservatives are against it (“We think we will win less seats”) they give us what I describe as half-truths, scaremongering, selective observation, and (dare I say it) ourtight lies.

Myth #1: “AV is Unfair”

What they say: “With First Past the Post, everybody gets one vote. But under AV, supporters of extreme parties like the BNP would get their vote counted many times, while people who vote for one of the mainstream candidates would only get their vote counted once.”

Status: Untrue

This really depends how you look at it, you could assert that each vote gets counted a number of times, or even that votes for major parties, like the Conservative party get counted more than minor parties.

For example:

Let’s look at a fictional election conducted under AV:

First round results.
The Grand Party: 1234
The Big Party: 901
The Third Party: 564
The Fringe Party: 230
The Extremist Party: 87

The votes are all separated into different piles. Then we put the votes for the Grand party into a box labeled “Grand party”, the votes for the Big party into a box labeled “Big party” and so on.

Then our wonderful election volunteers get counting. They count the votes in the box maked “Grand party”, then the votes in the box marked “Big party”, and so on. At the end of the 1st round each of the parties have had the votes in the boxes counted once. Or you could say, each voter has had their votes counted once.

As no party has won over 50% of the vote, we move to a second round. The party with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, and the votes for that party are reassigned based on the second preferences. So, the volunteers empty out the box marked “Extremist party” and then put those votes into the boxes marked “Grand party”, “Big party”, “Third party”, “Fringe party”. Once those votes have been all put into boxes, they start counting again.

They count the votes in the box maked “Grand party”, then the votes in the box marked “Big party”, and so on. At the end of the 2nd round each of the parties have had the votes in the boxes counted twice. Or you could say, each voter has had their votes counted twice.

I could go on here, but I hope you get the point. With each round, every single vote is counted again. It’s simply untrue to say that votes for extremist parties are counted more than once. If you want to get hung up about how often votes are counted, you could even argue that AV discriminates against extremist parties. After the first round, the box marked “Extremist party” is thrown in the bin. That box only has its contents counted once. The boxes for the major parties get counted three or four times.

Update (13th March):

This blog post has created a bit of a stir with Conservative No2AV supporters, and I’ve even been called a liar for stating that David Cameron was elected under AV.

Forgive me if I haven’t articulated my point adequately, but nowhere in my blog post do I state that David Cameron was elected using AV.

I merely draw comparisons between the election of Cameron to leadership of the Tories and an AV election. There are many similarities. Conservative MPs use run-off voting to select the two candidates that the wider Conservative party membership can then vote on. This isn’t FPTP, as asserted by many No2AV campaigners – using run-off voting to narrow the candidates down to two is exactly what AV does. The main difference is that under AV, the run-offs are instant and all voting takes place in the same ballot. Another difference is that AV doesn’t lock out a set of voters for the first rounds.

Nevertheless, my point was to highlight the flawed logic employed by the Conservative party on this issue – that if you “Finish” the first round of voting in second place you shouldn’t be declared the winner. The first round of the Conservative leadership election saw David Davis “Finish” first, and David Cameron second. I am simply pointing out the hypocricy within their argument.

Bearcraft DJ Mix – March 2011

Tracklisting:
Yelle – Safari Disco Club
Gorillaz – Empire Ants (Miami Horror Remix)
Crookers feat. Miike Snow – Remedy (Magik Johnson Vocal Mix)
French Horn Rebellion – This Moment
Duck Sauce – Barbra Steisand
Monarchy – The Phoenix Alive
Uffie – Difficult
Sleigh Bells – Run The Heart (Bassnectar Remix)

In the constituency of Lilliput there have been well documented disagreements about how eggs should be eaten.

I’m going to investigate how the alternative vote could help the people of Lilliput

Up until recent decades only two political parties have campaigned in Lilliput – The raw eggers and the cooked eggers. The main difference between the two parties is that the raw eggers believe eggs should only be eaten raw, cooked eggers believe they should be cooked.

If we look at the election results over the last few decades we can see that the people of Lilliput prefer their eggs to be cooked:

Winners are marked in pink.

Average election result 1840-1870

A Split!

Then something happened in-between the 1870 & 1875 elections. The cooked eggers started arguing among themselves. Some of them thought that eggs should not only be cooked, but that they should specifically be boiled, whilst others agreed they should be cooked, but thought they should be fried. The party split in two and the elections following looked like this:

Raw Eggers are the biggest party (average vote 1875-1890):

But parties that prefer eggs to be cooked are the majority (average vote 1875-1890):

The poor people of Lilliput! In the years 1875-1895 they had to eat all of their eggs raw! Even though in 1890 more people voted for cooked-egg parties than ever before:

The poor constituents had to put up with salmonella poisoning and all kind of cookery problems. Then in 1895 it got even worse. The Cooked-Eggers split further to form a Scrambled Egg party, and a new fringe party emerged called F.R.E.E.D. (For the Resistance of Egg Eating Discrimination), who believed you should be free to determine how your own eggs are eaten (the weirdos).

So the Raw Eggers are still in charge despite their share of the vote being the lowest ever. And a whopping 71% voted for parties which don’t want the enforcement of raw egg eating. In 1900, despite the Raw Eggers vote being split by a new extremist “RAW EGGS OR DIE” party, they still won power despite getting only a quarter of the vote.

At last, a change!

Change was in the air with the turning of a new century, and the people of Lilliput decided to try a new system to try and ensure that more
of them were represented. They gave AV a try, and here were the results:

In 1905, under AV, the Cooked Fried Eggers won with almost three-quarters of the final vote. The majority of the citizens in Lilliput breathed a huge sigh of relief – the no longer had to eat raw eggs. Only a fifth of them go their first choice – fried eggs, but the majority was happy that they could eat cooked eggs again. They might prefer scrambled or boiled eggs, but at least they don’t have to eat them raw any more. If push comes to shove, they don’t mind how they eat their eggs, as long as they’re cooked.

So what happened‌

After the first preference votes were counted, the Raw Eggers were slightly in the lead. Under FPTP, the election would have been over and the Raw Eggers were in power, but because the system is AV, and no-one had won over 50% of the vote, we went to a second round.

In the second round, the party with the smallest number of votes was eliminated. Essentially, those voters were being told “the party you voted for will not win – do you want to give your votes to a party with a better chance of winning‌” In this case, the RAW EGGS OR DIE party gave their second preference votes to the Raw eggers party, so the votes for the Raw Eggers party are recounted, including the votes from the RAW EGGS OR DIE party, and they are put further into the lead with 26 votes.

This process was repeated in the third round, and the Vegan Party & F.R.E.E.D. Alliance was eliminated.
Their voter’s votes were redistributed:

…And then in the 4^th round the Scrambled Eggers gave their votes to other cooked egg parties, and so on until we had a party reach over 50% of the vote, as with did with the cooked Fried Egg party.

If this Lillputian Election was conducted under first past the post, only around a fifth of the voting population would have their first choice party in power. This was the same when the election was conducted using AV, although under AV three quarters of the population are happier with the result. They may not have their first choice,
but they feel more in common with the winner than if the election was conducted using FPTP.

The moral of this story

FPTP is a good system for choosing between two candidates, but is awful when more than two candidates stand. As our political beliefs become more sophisticated, so should our elections, and the way we choose our representation.

Last night’s DJing gig was excellent fun. Against the backdrop of a fantastic Cirque Du Soleil performance for Oxfam in the stunning Royal Albert Hall, I played a bit of a chill-out set. It’s not my usual stuff so I was pleased to have a good reception. I had a few people asking me for the setlist, and although sadly the Torq Xponent software failed to save what I actually played, here’s a list of the tracks I drew from over the course of the night.

I absolutely love the English folk song The Blacksmith. So much so that I’m determined to cover it. 

It’s a traditional song, a really sad tale about some badass blacksmith who says he’ll marry a poor lass just to bed her, and then buggers off abroad to marry someone else and it breaks her heart. I find it really touching and quite devastating.

The lyrics are really moving and I’ve only just discovered their power, despite loving the Steeleye /Span version for around ten years now. However some of the rhyming jarred with me a bit, such as the lack of it in the final lines and the rhyming of “roses” with “primroses”. So I have tried to rewrite some of it. It feel slightly like I’m betraying  the author by altering it, but in the soul of a traditional song are hundreds of authors who have rewritten the track for performance in their time, so I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. I’ve included the first recorded lyrics, transcribed by Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1909 for comparison.

As transcribed by Ralph Vaughan Williams, sung by Mrs Powell in 1909

A blacksmith courted me, nine months and better
He fairly won my heart, wrote me a letter.
With his hammer in his hand, he looked so clever
And if I was with my love I would live forever.

But where is my love gone, with his cheeks like roses
He’s gone across the sea gathering primroses
Will burn and scorch I fear the shining sun his beauty
And if I was with my love, I would do my duty.

Strange news is come to town, strange news is carried
Strange news flies up and down, that my love is married.
I wish them both much joy, tThough they can’t hear me
And may God reward him well, for the slighting of me.

What did you promise me when you lay beside me
And you said you’d marry me, and not deny me.
If I said I’d marry you, it was only for to try you
So bring your witness love, and I’ll not deny you.

No, witness have I none, save God Almighty
And may he reward you well, for the slighting of me.
Her lips grew pale and wan, it made a poor heart tremble
To think she loved a one, and he proved deceitful.

Dicky’s version, 2010

A blacksmith courted me, nine months or better
He fairly won my heart, wrote me a letter
With his hammer in his hand, he looked so clever
And if I were with my love, I would live forever

Oh, where has my love gone with his cheeks like roses
He’s gone across the sea, soon as he proposes
I fear the shining sun will burn and scorch his beauty
And if I were with my love, I would do my duty

Sad news has come to town, strange news is carried
Bad news has dumped me down, that my love is married
Oh I wish them both much joy, but they can’t hear me
And if I were with my love, I would keep him near me

Do you remember what you said when you lay beside me
You told me we’d be wed and you’d not deny me
If I said I’d marry you, ’twas only to try you
So bring your witness, love, and I’ll not deny you

Oh, witness I have none, except God Almighty
And he might reward you well for the slighting of me
Oh my lips are pale and weary; my heart is never peaceful
to think I had one love, and he proved deceitful

Yestreen

 I’m very excited because tomorrow is a very special day for me, the release date for my first album, Yestreen.  

 It’s been a long time since it’s conception. I first decided to make an album at the end of 2006, but then spent 2007 & 2008 experimenting with musical forms and working out how I wanted the album to sound.   It was at the beginning of 2009 that I formed Bearcraft, within 6 months I had my album planned; two singles, eight album tracks, and a satellite, (the Longest Frontier).   I’m so lucky to have the wonderful and lovely Jessica Akerman giving each release it’s own visual identity based on Yestreen’s themes.   

The Werewolf

I sent the final mixdown of the album to Hottwerk records at the beginning of 2010, and the last eight months have been all about the waiting.   

It’s amazing how long these things take. I thought the album would be out in summer 2007, if you want to make something great, sometimes that means taking your time.  I’m really proud of the album, and I am cheered on by the good reviews it has received, such as this and this.The two wilderness years have already been spent, so I’m expecting the follow-up will spend shorter in the womb. The title track of the next release is already recorded, and those who have heard it love it.

Dark Night

If, for whatever reason, I don’t release any other music, I won’t mind. I’m really excited to have Yestreen out there, and although there is so more I want to say, so much more music to be made, Yestreen is a little gem I’ll always be satisfied to have made.   

Yestreen

  Oh, and you can buy it from here or get free tracks from here, here and here.

So last weekend I visited Whitstable to check out the eagerly anticipated installation by Cave People during the Whitstable Biennale. The work is called “Songs of Salt” is an incredibly immersive piece of art which to me felt a lot like I was gate crashing a sailors dream. Lying on a bed in a quiet and dark (I mean really dark) beach hut, the sounds of a sailors life at sea came drifting in from underneath the pillow. As the sea crashed and lapped against the side of the boat the sound of a lone sea shanty singer came in. This, along with the swinging lantern, suspended from the centre of the room, projected a kind of nostalgia for the sailor’s life, a memory that I didn’t have, of being a sailor on the ocean. Over time the memory became more focussed, my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room and saw that the lantern was projecting an image of sailors working side by side, and I could clearly hear a sailor singing “Spanish Ladies”, a sea shanty.

The person who went in after me came out saying “I feel sea-sick”, which was understandable, despite the beach hut being firmly anchored to the sand. A lovely way to start the weekend.

I met up with my friend Pablo about 15 minutes before Argentina took on Germany in the World Cup. We were both keen to watch it, and Pablo, being from Argentina, was especially keen. But where? We looked down a beach and saw a wall with the word “BAR” written across it. Surely it won’t be showing it? That would be too easy.

I was taken aback when, after about 30 seconds walk, we found ourselves in a wonderful beach-side sports bar, with World Cup moving picture on every wall! You couldn’t avoid the match in there even if you wanted to (and at times I expected Pablo to want to avoid it). The match was very exciting, and I was pleased to see that it’s not only England that could be sliced open so clinically by that young German team.

After the match, and feeling a little merry we went back to the beach hut, and ate chips. Suddenly the cider barrels were opened and we were joined by “Dead Horse Morris” and “The Shipwright Shanty Crew”.

I enjoyed the cider for the first time since I was fourteen, and listened to the wonderful shanties, fourbitters and chorus songs. After a few I found myself singing along in the choruses, despite having never heard most of them before. It was wonderful. The sun was settings behind us, and a very Hackney crowd was sitting around enjoying the most wonderful folk music.

After the end, I had not had enough. We invited the Shanty singers to the pub with us, and sat among surprisingly un-bemused locals, singing shanties at the tops of our voices. Such wonderful stories are contained in these songs, and Marc, one of the shanty singers, apparently can recall over 300 of them. I hastily tested his memory with a few randomly selected folk titles I could muster, and sure enough he sang them note for note, as much as a traditional song can be sung note for note.

What a lovely day.

The Sunday was lovely too – I went for a lovely long walk along the beach, which was just so quiet. Knowing what Southend beach is like on a hot summer’s day, I was shocked to see just how secluded it was.

And then I enjoyed some of the other wonderful works of art around – including this wonderful knitted bicycle cover.

I had the most amazing weekend. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow as it’s surely time for bed, but for now here’s a taste:

And it’s in our interest to give it to them. Though not too much. 

Watching last night’s Question Time I was surprised at how many people were shocked that Nick Clegg and David Cameron were willing to enter a coalition.  “He wants the power” they said of Cleggy. “He’s desperate to be PM” they said of Cammers.

This annoyed me. Of course Nick Clegg wants power. Of course David Cameron wants power. Without power our political parties are useless. Once in government, a party can employ the policies that you voted for! That’s a good thing! Duh!

I’m very excited about this new coalition, and about this consensus based politics. Of course I am wary of the power the Conservatives hold, and I don’t trust this new centrist sheen, but this coalition could do amazing things for Tories all over the country, and also for the rest of us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m the average Tory-fearer. (I don’t hate those who vote for them, although I do find that habit irksome. See this Charlie Brooker article for an eloquent summary).

But perhaps the reason they’re so universally hated outside their ranks is because they have the habit of getting 100% of the power. Quite often it’s only 40% of us who have had reason to or have been duped into voting Conservative, but that has led to them being able to boss the remaining 60% of us around.

Imagine if we had a system where you couldn’t win 100% with less than 50% of the vote. Imagine if government was always formed by coalition. We might not hate them so much if we could temper them a bit, just like the Lib-Dems have been doing over the last week.

Imagine if we had Proportional Prepresentation under Thatcher.

“What’s that you say? Poll tax? We’d better not I think. Sounds unwise.”

“Transition to a service economy? Well ok, but gently does it there, we don’t want 
to upset the miners now. Oh, you do? Lucky we’re here to appeal to your better judgement.”

The Tories could be tolerated and even loved by the rest of us, as I think they should be. We will see as they really are; the honest farmers; the eccentric aristocracy, the “wary-of foreigners” elderly, the addicted-to-outrage Daily Mail readers, the small business owners who just want an easier job balancing the books, and yes, the rich. We might not like all of their views, but that doesn’t matter because it’s only the sensible views will influence laws.

We could no longer see them as a threat. No longer a minority who wield untold misery on the rest of us, but just people who need a bit if policy every now and then, which of course will be passed, if it’s not too evil.

If we build these coalitions based on shared values we could have such a great, civilised democracy. Surely this is the future.

Our neighbours in Europe are able to conduct their politics in a more grown up fashion. Their systems of proportional representation, while not perfect, lead to a politics built on mutual respect. And they come across much more civilised.

I imagine that’s why so many MEPs were aghast at watching Nigel Farrage throwing an undignified tantrum at that Belgian fellow. Nigel thought he’d give him a bit of the Punch and Judy politics we see at Prime-Minister’s questions. To the Europeans he just looked like a crazed thug.

Cameron keeps espousing that our antiquated first-past-the-post system is more likely to give us a strong government, and this is what is needed. But a strong government is not good for the country. It was a strong government that took us into the disastrous and illegal war in Iraq, while the rest of us saw it as a sham. It was a strong government that Thatcher presided over.

There’s nothing wrong with a strong government in itself. But it is dangerous and immoral when it only represents a minority of us. What we have now is a coalition that represents 59.1% of us. And strong enough to face the severe economic challenges ahead. But the majority of us are going to be represented when the axes start falling.

And that’s why electoral reform is as important as the current economic crisis. We should worry less about the markets and more about our democracy. Our problems must be solved through building consensus. We, the electorate, know better than the market fundamentalists about how to achieve the society we want. It was the markets that got us into this mess. And it’s a mess we will solve by working together. Two ideologically different parties coming together to work it through.

I’m not going to guess whether this coalition will work or not. I didn’t expect a Lib-Con coalition when I saw the results roll in. But now we’ve got one I feel quite good about it. No more shall we allow a minority to dictate policies to the rest of us. This has to be the future.

On Friday night I officially launched the Bearcraft debut single at a wonderful party hosted by N+K. It was a great event and N+K worked wonders to bring the woods into the venue. We were surrounded by buddleia, creeping up over our heads and into our drinks. Jessica’s nocturnal woodland creatures sneaked around behind us, flickering gently in the candlelight as projections of Bearcraft beauties loomed.

Bearcrafters

More Bearcrafters

We showed the Werewolf video in full which had a rapturous reception, to the relief of me and director Chris King, who sheltered behind the buddleia during the showing.

Watching  The Werewolf  

 And this was followed by a drunken and passionate Bearcraft performance, joined onstage by some publicity seeking spiders, imported from the buddleia and lowering themselves into the limelight on their wickedly woven webs.

Bearcraft live - Photo by Nick Davies

Adding to the performance was the encroaching buddleia, which joined in on a keyboard solo, smothered me during the Werewolf.

Bearcraft in the Enchanted Forest – Photo by Nick Davies

It was great fun though, and really spooky, like really trying to play a gig in an enchanted forest, with all the trees and creepies coming to life to join in the music.

 The night was mired/enhanced (delete as appropriate) by some well timed rocknroll violence at the end of the evening. The organisers of the party, N+K were in a backstage room when I carried my equipment in, away from the maelstrom of the party above. They were arguing about something or other (I won’t tell you what, but it’s hilariously brilliant) and then suddenly it got a bit out of hand and punches were thrown. I felt the need to intervene. I tried to get them to make up but the apologies extracted were said through gritted teeth, and my continued reconciliation attempts only suceeded in causing another explosion of rage. Storming out of the room, shouting “Don’t give me this hippy shit”, K slammed the door so violently that it stopped being a door. The party-goers upstairs felt the shockwave apparently.

The door stayed shut and I relucantly climbed out of the window too. It would take power-tools and sobriety to open it the following day. After the tears had dried and the alcohol worn off we all hugged and said sorry, shook, made up and reflected on how alive those wicked werewolves are.

Bear Craft