Professor Robert Winston and No2AV

Professor Robert Winston appeared on the BBC Breakfast show this morning to defend FPTP; or to be precise denigrate AV. I think this is the first time I've watched a respected scientist with my jaw agape at the sheer rubbish he was spouting.

Consider if this was a scientific project presented to him by one of his students. The student bases his conclusion on the following:

1. An argument that neither validates nor invalidates the project;
2. Data from another paper taken out of context;
3. Consensus opinion with no validity to the argument;
4. A personal opinion; and
5. An argument based on no data that is refuted by several other papers and experiments.

I think he'd return it and be very disappointed. What did we get from Professor Winston:

1. The referendum was rushed through Parliament. This doesn't make it bad, it doesn't make it good; it has no bearing on anything.
2. A quote from Nick Clegg that wasn't referring to this AV, but a proposal from Gordon Brown.
3. That the majority in all the political Parties don't want it; who cares what they think?
4. AV will still have tactical voting it will just be more complicated; with no evidence to support that claim.
5. AV will lead to more hung Parliaments; despite a paper that states that the likelihood under either system will increase and that historically AV Australia has had less hung elections than FPTP Canada an indicator that such is more Party based than voting-system based.

Sorry Professor, but you've let yourself down.