The Status Quo Party

And not in the 'good' rock band sense - I refer to the Tory view on electoral reform, which Cameron pretty much outlined here

Now, nobody expects the Tories to accept PR, dear God no, they'd lose all their country safe seats, but they have decided to completely back the FPtP system - 'no electoral reform' is what they say, the current system works perfectly well in their view

For them that is - the Tories have never endorsed electoral reform (although they do ironically have the 1832 and 1867 reform acts to their name, both in a technical sense) and have no incentive to give up their rural safe seats

I personally find it interesting that Cameron has decided to take a line on this, he's gone against the reforming zeal of the current climate and stuck his party's colours firmly to the mast (for once) - it probably won't matter come an election, but championing the status quo seems a bit of a risky business to me

If he's so concerned with an MP having a connection with their constituents why doesn't he back the AV system? That's just first past the post done a bit more fairly, you still get one person for a constituency, and they get a better mandate

It doesn't really limit his ability to hit Brown with cries of opportunism - the Lib Dems are happy to point out Labour abandoned any ideas of reform 12 years ago and haven't mentioned it since, the Tories could do the same, doing nothing about it doesn't exactly help their image

Although at least they are being honest for once...

So the point I would draw from this is that if you want any sort of decent reform then don't vote Tory, all they've backed is a few ideas on tougher scrutiny of MPs and reducing the number of MPs (which works in their favour) - I never expected much but it is now black and white for all to see - so by that logic the only way we'll be seeing decent reform is by voting Lib Dem, who have always campaigned for a fairer system