I am writing today regarding the referendum on Alternative Voting (AV) to be held on the 5th May 2011. Despite both camps using the British National Party as a reason to vote one way or the other, our stance on the AV system is that we do not want it, do not need it, and can ill afford it. 

Alternative Voting is even more disproportional than the first-past-the-post system that is currently used, and as such is fundamentally unfair to smaller parties like us. AV is also costly. With ordinary families facing tough times and even tougher choices, can we really afford to spend an estimated quarter of a billion pounds of taxpayers' money bringing in a new voting system?

Alternative Voting does very little to give a voice to those who have been traditionally under-represented in parliament, and as there is no transfer of powers from party authority to the voters, it does not produce a proportional parliament.

In other words, the Alternative Voting system is no improvement upon the existing first-past-the-post system and is merely designed to make it more difficult for a party such as the British National Party to gain parliamentary representation.

The Alternative Voting system is a sleight of hand which is directed against the British National Party, and as such, is also a sleight of hand directed at the millions of people who now say that they would vote for a party like us.

Alternative Voting is not aimed at improving democracy in Britain. Rather, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg’s sudden conversion to AV is an indication that they have now fully comprehended the meaning of the British National Party’s recent surge in vote totals — and are desperate to undermine democracy even further.

So on 5th May, please vote NO to the Alternative Voting system, and encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Yours for the future of Britain,

Nick Griffin MEP

Chairman, British National Party

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