It is not proportional, so the government drawn from the commons will still not reflect the will of the people. But, even if a majority, the government elected in 2015 will not have impunity to pass legislation without some measure of compromise and consensus: we need to look at the package of reforms, not just the individual measures. Taking the voting system first:

AV is better, freer and fairer than first past the rest

It is funny that we call our existing voting system first past the post when in fact it has no finishing post, an MP can be elected by a mere 5% of the vote under FPTP if there are 20 equally popular candidates and they happen to get one more vote than the other 19.

Under the Alternative Vote, a term which has been shown to confuse the hell out of voters, there is a fixed post for victory; 50%. More than half of your constituents will have put a mark by your name if you’re elected under AV, whether that was a 1, 2, 3 or even 4.

So in fact, it is AV that has a finish post, and FPTP that is wishy washy and unclear. Thus, we should really call our current voting system “first past the rest”, and what will hopefully become our new one “first past the post”.

Now it isn’t perfect; the government is determined by the commons, and AV is not proportional, which means we will have non-mandated majority governments.

But that’s not where this coalitions constitutional reform agenda finishes!

If we look at Clegg’s constitutional reforms as a package, they actually massively redistribute power away from the commons’ leadership, making either these broken voting systems less of an eyesore.

Remember that, even if AV falls we will still have an MMC STV House of Lords. Now there is no reason not to repeal the Parliament Act once the Lords is elected; and that means the executive is truly accountable to an (almost certainly) balanced chamber.

In this AV-PR system, we have a achieved step one of true pluralist government; requirement of the government to get a 50%+1 vote in a proportional chamber.

Now, we may or may not win the AV referendum (although we need to if we ever want to see PR in the commons,) but either way we are still having the most important change in this parliament; a proportionally elected Lords.

Step two of a truly pluralist government, one required to command a proportional house even to form, is a battle for another day.