AV will make no difference

There is supposed to be an upcoming referendum in May on whether or not to change the voting system in the UK from first past the post to an Alternative Voting (AV) system in which voters rank their choices (first preference, second preference, etc).

I think what's needed isn't a change in the type of voting, although a move to more secure and verifiable voting would be a benefit.  What's needed instead is a deeper democracy, where people get to vote on decisions which actually impact upon their lives, such as for example local council spending, combined with what's called "open government" where voters can freely get access to the data generated by government agencies.

There is progress being made on the open government aspect, but what voters can do once they have more access to information and become better informed still remains extremely limited, to the extent that it violates the law of requisite variety as an effective method of governance.  As a citizen I can vote every four or five years for a new government, but that's both the beginning and the end of my participation, and those who are being voted for frequently don't even make a good faith attempt to abide by their manifesto pledges anyway.  In the absence of enough variety this vacuum is occupied by other interest groups - big companies and wealthy individuals - who generate variety through a complex system of lobbying and social networking.

Fundamentally off-topic

The pro/anti AV debate is an interesting phenomena in itself, because I expect that a great deal of fervent argumentation is going to take place in the Westminster village and in newspapers/TV over the next couple of months, whereas in reality the particular type of voting system used could hardly be a topic more remotely distanced from the list of high priority issues currently concerning UK citizens, which are typically connected to unemployment, inflation, education, taxes and public services.  If there are any debates held in public I'm expecting to hear cries of "we don't care about this issue, we want referendum on X", where X could be university fees or NHS privatisation or one of many other hot topics.

Exasperation with the status quo

On a personal note, my view of politics as currently practiced has not improved one iota, and is unlikely to change even if AV is adopted.  In the 2010 elections I tried to do what voters are theoretically supposed to do, by examining the various manifestos and trying to determine which one most closely matched my views.  Luckily the party I (belatedly) voted for actually did get into office, but already we can see the usual practice of manifesto pledges being jettisoned or ignored which leaves me wondering whether voting really has any meaning at all, other than perhaps as a woefully inadequate gesture of participation.