Sketch: An AV cat fight

Wednesday, 27 April 2011 12:00 AM

The referendum on the alternative vote has become a game of political back-stabbing.

By Hannah Brenton

The claws have been out for some time in the tussle over the alternative voting system.

It's a political cat fight, where any high-profile politician involved in either campaign will be lucky to escape without being knifed by the other side.

Personal attacks have been a common feature since Ed Miliband first refused to share a platform with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Lib Dem energy secretary Chris Huhne accused Tory party chair Baroness Warsi of spreading "Goebbels-like propaganda".

But these overt slaps in the face have been increasingly accompanied by the rather more discreet but effective stab in the back, often executed with a wry smile.

As both campaigns are accused of being overly negative and turning the electorate off, the tactics have become more underhand.

Cue a cosy 'yes' to AV event this morning, which saw former Labour home secretary Alan Johnson, Lib Dem party president Tim Farron, Green party leader Caroline Lucas and UKIP leader Nigel Farage share a platform.

Johnson, while declaring Labour must back electoral reform for the sake of their history, principles and ethos, could not help but take a dig at a Home Office predecessor.

"I would just make this plea: we were founded on the basis of electoral reform and while John Reid is absolutely right that this should not be about narrow political advantage - although I question whether John isn't actually leading the 'no' campaign precisely for that reason - it should be about saying to the electorate: 'Even though we can win with first-past-the-post, we think it's a miserably disempowering system that belongs in the past and is not of this age'," he said.

Protracted perhaps but effectively disparaging. Miaow.

Farron in turn laid into the Tories' most mythologised leader Margaret Thatcher, accusing her of pursuing "organised wickedness" during her tenure of prime minister and pointing to first-past-the-post as the culprit that got her elected in the first place.

More sly than a direct attack on his coalition partners, this nevertheless effectively reminds people of the economic hardships of the 1980s, with the benefit of tarring the Tories and first-past-the-post with the same brush.

Farron also kindly offered the prime minister some advice.

"I look at David Cameron and I scratch my head in confusion," he said.

"I thought he stood for change, for progress, for reform. He was the future once. Does he really want to be remembered as the last defender of a disgraced system?"

"He has eight days to become a leader remembered as a reformer rather than one derided for being a defender of a failing system."

Perhaps Cameron will read these kind words and have an epiphany. He will say out loud: "In all his wisdom Tim Farron is right, I am a man of change".

Or perhaps, these comments only serve to colour the prime minister as an old school Tory. Ka-pow, character assassination.

The most honest man in the room was Farage who said both sides had been party to a "war of personal abuse".

Sitting at the side, Katie Ghose, leader of Yes to AV, looked decidedly uncomfortable. Once you go negative, it's very hard to stop.

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