With a view to moving forward as a positive force to improve UK democracy where possible, the Birmingham group has elected a new committee, who are as follows:

Cory Hazelhurst (Chair)
Ashley Walsh (Treasurer)
Charlotte Galpin (Secretary)
Tom Pratt (Campaigns Manager)
Mark Caudery (Communications Manager/Membership Secretary)

Next Meeting of TBP – Birmingham, 27 July 2011

The next meeting of Take Back Parliament – Birmingham will be on Weds 27th July at 7pm

in the Boardroom at Bennett’s Bar, 8 Bennett’s Hill, Birmingham,  B2 5RS.

The Agenda will include strategy discussions with the ERS and Unlock Democracy.  We will also be looking at future campaigns.

Everyone is welcome.    Any queries please contact Chris Burgess, Tel:  07795 987 987

Blog Post from a fellow TBP-Birmingham member!

TBP Birmingham’s very own Chris Burgess has posted a new article on his blog about the all important 2nd reading in Parliament of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill & it’s implications for the referendum ahead. here’s the link:

http://liberalsciences.wordpress.com/2010/09/05/parliamentary-voting-system-bill/

Meeting tonight!

We’re going to be in Bennett’s pub, on Bennett’s Hill in the centre of Birmingham from 7 pm onwards.

The agenda can be found here: http://tbpbham.invisionplus.net/?mforum=tbpbham&showtopic=7

Hope to see you there!

Tom

VoteNoToAV Twitter campaign gaffes down under…

Exclusive: NoToAV Twitter campaign spreading disinformation.

Research by Take Back Parliament Birmingham has been monitoring tweets from the NoToAV campaign on Twitter, which have contained plenty of disinformation tonight.

On the night of the Australian election, the NoToAV campaign has made a series of blunders:
…
Claim 1:

“VoteNoToAV In Australia, Labor (38% of the vote) win same number of seats as Liberals (43%). Greens (12%) win only 1. Behold the proportionality of AV!”

Reponse 1a) Actually it’s the Liberal/National coalition which got 43% of the vote. This is ironic since no campaigners have complained that AV produces coalitions, when it is a coalition they are in fact talking about here.

Response 1b) VoteNoToAV completely ignores the second preferences of voters, clearly shown on the Australian Electoral Commission’s website – http://vtr.aec.gov.au/

This shows the two main political groupings – Labour and the Liberal/National Coalition are almost neck and neck when second preferences are taken into account. Therefore you would expect them to be neck and neck in terms of seats under AV.

Claim 2:

“VoteNoToAV Over 11% of the vote and the Australian Green Party wins a single seat. Why does the Green Party UK support AV exactly? #No2AV”

Response 2a) There is no Green Party UK. There is instead the Green Party of England and Wales, and a seperate Green Party for Scotland.

Response 2b) The Green party of England and Wales are not in favour of AV – traditionally they’ve been in favour of AMS. They are debating the issue at their conference in September. Their leader, Caroline Lucas, has spoken out against AV in the past.

Response 2c) NoToAV ignores the prediction by some section of the media that the Greens in Australia may hold the balance of power in the Australian Senate, which is elected by STV.

Interestingly, there are proposals here to elect the Lords by…you guessed it, STV.

Perhaps the VoteNoToAV should change their campaign to VoteNoToDisinformation and start getting their facts right?

Simon Foster
(Lecturer in Politics, former Councillor, member: Take Back Parliament Birmingham).

The response from VoteNoToAV can be found here:

http://votenotoav.wordpress.com/2010/08/22/reply-to-take-back-parliament-blog-post/

Update – VoteNotoAV on twitter has asked me to clarify that they exist on a grassroots level and they are not part of the official No to AV campaign, which I’m happy to do.

Seems like their distancing themselves as they realise they’ve made some mistakes!

Campaign meeting tonight!

7 pm in Bennett’s Hill Bar on Bennett’s Hill Road, near Birmingham Cathedral.

For more information, see: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121964234517676&index=1 and sign up to the event at: http://www.takebackparliament.com/page/event/detail/takebackparliament/wrbg

Hope to see you there!

Best, Tom