The other day I was invited to take part in a YouGov survey which contained, amongst others, a question about AV.

They vote for AV ... the mark of Satan is upon them. They must hang.

I don’t think AV is the answer to the democratic deficit in England as I have already said but I do support the change to the voting system because it’s better than First Past the Post.

Last week the increasingly desperate “no” campaign claimed spun one of their own pieces of “research” into a claim that “extremists” like the BNP will get into positions of power.  The desperation of the “no” campaign is evident in their use of Witchfinder General Warsi – a woman I wouldn’t believe if she told me water was wet – as a spokesperson.

So back to this YouGov survey and the question on AV:

Which of these would you prefer?

• A voting system in which extremist parties have a good chance of winning seats in a general or local election if they have the support of around one-third of local voters
• A voting system which makes it very hard for extremist parties to win seats in a general or local election unless they have majority local support

I said last week that it did no favours to the “no” campaign to misrepresent their opinion as fact and equally it YouGov no favours to accept what is so obviously a blatant piece of propaganda.  The question is worded so that it’s impossible to give the “wrong” answer – you either want to make it easy for “extremists” or hard for them.  No mention of the fact that it’s actually all small, unrepresented parties that will benefit and “extremists” only by virtue of the fact that they’re small and unrepresented.