Morden's First Black Mark

Apologies for the lack of updates recently but it's been a hectic time for us all; a mixture of exams, work and music festivals has left us lacking in any real energy.

Just a quick reminder that Ms Morden is also still alive, last week she even went as far as speaking in the House of Commons asking Peter Hain:

Will my right hon. Friend consider using a single vote rather than two to elect additional Members, as is being considered by the Arbuthnot commission in Scotland?

Of course, currently Labour does very badly on the second vote, partly due to the additional member system acting against parties with large numbers of constituency based AMs but also because people vote for a second party (usually one that's not standing in their area, or has little chance of winning) and this penalises Labour further.

Mr Hain went on to say that he thought it was confusing for constituents to have two ballot papers. What the Welsh Secretary doesn't say is how much better Labour would do under such a tweak to the system. Besides, it is important that this choice is left to the electorate, so that smaller parties are not penalised further, and not taken away as Ms Morden suggests it should be. It is for this reason that we, for the first time, condemn the Member for Newport East.