What has also become clear is that our senior politicians will stop at nothing to push their own success. David Blunkett has admitted that the 'NO to AV' campaign lied to sway voters: you might suggest that the result (almost certainly now a win for the NO camp) should be declared invalid?
Of course, as you would expect in our modern British democracy, many of us simply did not vote. Whether through conscientious objection, laziness, or the latter dressed up as the former, the turnout figures, no doubt, will be low again. Do we not care, or are we just too disengaged from politics these days? Do we feel that our vote is even worth the ballot paper we splodge our 'X' on? Would splodging '1,2,3,4' really open up politics to the untapped masses, or would even AV have left the fate of the relative many in the hands of the agenda-bound few?
Regardless of the relative worth of AV and FPTP (I tend to believe AV is better, by a few millimeters, but I could probably be persuaded the other way), the only certainty of a NO vote is that it is a victory for David Cameron and Tories, and one which they will inevitably spin to block any future suggestions of electoral or even broader political reform.
As for Nick Clegg, the hapless champion of reform cum Tory tea-boy, his status will be in ruins if the NO vote does indeed win. His whole Lib Dem party might follow suit. Commentators who predict the Lib Dems will split over the coalition devil's pact may well be vindicated, and soon.
Democracy in action? Perhaps. I fail to see though how any democracy where barely half the electorate vote and less than half of those who do are ultimately represented in government can be considered, in any way, fair.
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