Alan Johnson and electoral reform

I've just learned (with all the urgency of someone who doesn't give a fuck about this sort of thing) that Alan Johnson is embracing the electoral reform proposals of a dead man. Literally, the plans of a man who has died. Really difficult to know why this didn't make the front pages everywhere. 

Anyway, sarcasm aside, let's look at what the "Alan Johnson Presents: A Roy Jenkins Plan: Electoral Reform" actually proposes:

The Jenkins plan involved a hybrid system called AV plus. About four fifths of MPs would be elected, as now, for single-member constituencies but on the basis of the alternative vote. AV involves listing candidates in order one, two, three so a winner has to secure a half of the preferences plus one. This is unlike the first-past-the-post system, where a winner just has to be ahead of the runner-up.

Phew! Scintillating stuff, I think you'll agree. As I read those words, my eyes bled with boredom. Seriously, I was weeping tears of bloody boredom. Let's be honest, the technical details around voting systems is about as high on most people's reading lists as reading barcodes on tins of soup. You can argue electoral reform is vital and essential; I've yet to read any account of electoral reform that is in any way actually interesting. Which is kind of the point.

I spent years studying electoral reform; literally years. Not through choice - A-levels and a degree course forced me to. I'd rather have spent the time drinking cider and talking about music, like all good students. Nonetheless, I reached the following conclusions:

1. FPTP tends to create stable, albeit very powerful, governments.
2. FPTP is simple, whereas most other systems require voters both to give a fuck about the electoral system at the same time as understanding the sort of anal technicalities that only really bother geeks of the highest order. 
3. Most people don't give a flying fuck about the electoral system.

And it is the final point that is the most important one. You could find a way to really dumb down all the electoral systems on the back of a post card, and then present it as a referendum and people still wouldn't fucking care. It is dull. FPTP at least has the advantage that people can understand it (it is a race, winner takes all etc). You introduce a referendum to introduce a more complicated system, and people simply won't care. You're going to alienate more people at a time when many people already feel that politicians are completely detached from them. 

Of course Alan Johnson embraces this plan. He is trying to differentiate himself from the aborted, Nu Labour nightmare that is the Gordon Brown cabinet. But, sadly, he fails to grasp that democracy itself is a flawed concept, and that aspiring to reform a flawed system at a time when the people feel alienated from the political process is a bit like introducing a boredom virus to an old people's home. It is absolutely fucking pointless.