You couldn't make it up ...

The peers who have been filibustering to try to block the bill which gives the public a referendum on whether to change the voting system to AV are about to hold an election themselves - using AV.

Lord Stralbogi, who was a deputy speaker of the Lords, died last December at the age of 95.

His successor is to be elected in March - and the Lords use AV for their own elections.

So the people who have been talking through the night to try to deny you a say on whether to vote by AV are about to use the very system themselves that they are trying to deny you the choice to use. Couldn't make it up, could you?

Personally I am expecting to vote "No" in May, assuming the dinosaurs don't succeed in blocking the referendum, on the basis that I think a House of Commons elected by First Past the Post is likely to give the best result for the country most often.

But the behaviour of the more antedeluvian members of the "No" camp, particularly the Labour ones who are opposing a policy in their own party's manifesto, is hardly the best advert for the old politics.

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