No reason for the LD's to continue in coalition with Tories after todays drubbing in the local elections and now the "no to AV" prevailing.

I give the government another 6 months or so till it falls - torn apart by LD in-fighting

Superb. If the Lib-Dems pull out of the coalition, we're left with a part that not even 1/3rd of the population voted for and we've decided not to change the system that produced this farce.
Well done GB.

Great isn't it, and I think the value would be less than 1/4.

The voice of Britain has spoken... and shown tests need to be put in place to show you are of sound mind before you can vote and understand all the options

If you can't explain how AV works you cant vote no

Those were my exact thoughts

I think that Clegg will be history, but the coalition will go full term because they will not do well if they force an election.

Interesting how only 42% voted. It might be understandable if it was JUST the referendum yesterday, but it was local and regional elections as well.

So, we had a referendum on change and the verdict is- who gives a toss about democracy? People have fought and died to keep this a democratic country and people continue to fight and die to make their own countries democratic and only 42% can even be bothered to vote whether for yes or no.

So, roughly 30% of the population have dictated how our electoral system is to continue and we call that democracy. Just what did you expect? As noted earlier, pretty much the same thing happened in the recent vote to increase the Welsh Assembly's Law making powers.

To me voting is about making an informed and democratic decision, how can you vote when the system isnt democratic (it's tactical voting on key seats mostly) and it's not informed when people don't understand what their options were

As for it being complicated.... I could make 1+1=2 look like a brain surgeon performing surgery on the back of a rocket shooting around the CERN if I had the time and inclination

So, the final tally was IIRC 32.1% 'yes' and 67.9% 'no'.

Interesting how you can see the resounding rejection of the 'Yes' vote and yet using FPTP you don't need much more than 32.1% to form the Government....

I guess the result was to be expected though if you consider:

Any self respecting Tory was going to vote "No".
Labour were split down the middle.
The Lib Dems were in favour.

You are pretty much going to end up at 32-68...

What's frustrating me today is the BBC News trumpeting "The UK has voted overwhelmingly to reject changing the way MPs are elected".

No. A minority of the electorate voted, and a percentage of that percentage voted "no". Most of the electorate weren't bothered.

Still, what's done is done. Time to move on.

Agreed I'd much prefer a system where you have to vote.

True. There were a number of people who want full PR who were saying vote 'no'. Doesn't mean they're happy with FPTP.

Compulsory voting has its merits.

Hmm....

I used to agree with that but now I'm not sure that I do. I'm thinking that those of us in politics need to get waaaaay better at persuading people that they need to take part.