So Alan Johnson thinks that we should have a referendum on changing the electoral system proportional representation – specifically AV+, which he describesas:

On polling day, a voter would have two ballot papers. The first would be for choosing the constituency MP: the voter marks his preferences (1, 2, 3 and so on) against the candidates. If one candidate gets more than half of the first preference votes cast, he or she is duly returned. If not, the candidate with the lowest tally is knocked out, and the second (and then third, etc) preferences are redistributed until finally one candidate reaches the magical 50 per cent mark.

On the second ballot paper, the voter simply marks which party she wants to give her vote to. All these votes are tallied up and those parties that exceed the threshold (say 5 per cent) get a proportionate number of seats. The majority of those sitting on the green benches, however, would be constituency MPs.

Yes, oh so simple.

Now, I’m no fan of PR. I think it is an undemocratic system for use in our political system which takes control from the people and places it in the hands of the political classes. But I’m not going to go into that right now (maybe later, if requested).

The issue here is that Alan Johnson is calling for a referendum on an issue that really is not needed and certainly is not pressing. Looooong before we need a referendum on the Commons electoral system, we need a referendum on the EU constitution like we were promised, the issue of an English Parliament decided by a vote and, preferably, a general election as well.

Frankly, the issue of how we elect MPs simply isn’t an issue right now. Long before we even think about considering it we need to sort out the democratic deficit regarding devolution (or, rather, the lack of devolution to England) and the complete lack of any democracy in the House of Lords. Let’s not get so sidetracked by the MP expenses that we start looking at ways to “fix” the Commons and actually forget about the real constitutional and democratic issues.

This referendum that Alan Johnson is calling for is not just a referendum that is needed, but one that also must wait its turn – we have plenty of actually important issues that need referendums first.