The significance of alternative votes and the importance of trifles

At the weekend we had a family gathering for my father's 80th birthday. A suggestion from my youngest brother was that each family unit in attendance should make a bring a trifle (I will explain this quintessentially English dessert in a minute) to be entered into a tasting competition. This was just a bit of fun, but my father has long loved trifle and it gave us a chance to play with voting.

Before I go on I will explain trifle to any who are unfamiliar with it.

Usually this is a layered dessert. At the bottom is a sponge cake layer that has some alcohol soaked into it, usually sherry. Over this bottom layer is one or more layers of fruit jelly, with fruit pieces. This jelly infuses the cake too and sets as a whole. On top of this is a layer of (egg) custard or creme anglais - this too sets firm. The last and top layer is usually whipped cream and is often decorated with more fruit, sugar sprinkles, chocolate or indeed anything that comes to mind.

I am sure it sounds strange to many, but it has long been a staple in the UK and a good trifle is hard to beat.

So back to the story. We ended up with six trifles. There was some imagination used, as reflected in the names. My youngest brother produced a "Gloucester Meteor" - my father was in the Royal Air Force - and this came decorated with an RAF roundel maybe or arranged fruit. The challenge had been to create blue - he tried making blue custard, but found that to get the right blue it tasted of food colouring AND dyed everything it touched blue. In the end he arranged blue berries in a circle.

We had a familiar strawberry trifle and one laced with alcohol sodden cherries.

For my part I went experimental, producing an original rhubarb and ginger trifle. This had a Jamaica Ginger cake base with some whisky (whisky and ginger!), covered by a compute or rhubarb that was set with gelatine. This was all topped off with simple custard and cream. Fortunately it turned out all right - much to the surprise of my wife.

Anyway back to voting.

After everyone had tasted each trifle we were each asked to award points to our favourites; three to the best, two to the next and one to our third choice - and no voting for your own!

OK this was not truly AV, but something of a proxy. We announced the results as they would on a TV cooking show and while close we did have a winner - not rhubarb and ginger :(

As a contrast we then considered what would have been the outcome of a first past the post vote. In this instance the top three trifles were still the top three, but would have been tied. Of course with such a small voting population a tied vote was more likely.

So.......the unscientific conclusion is that our "AV" did not materially change the outcome, but did allow a determination in a close race.

As a prepare to vote in the national referendum on AV today I do wonder if it is all a fuss over very little and suspect that despite the high hopes and positive words of many that it will make little difference to our political scene. Will my vote count more in future - I doubt it. Will it make people more interested in voting - again I doubt it, it is not the system, but the integrity of the candidates and parties that have damaged that aspect. Will the minority parties get to play a bigger part - well maybe, but I suspect only marginally.

So as Bruce Forsythe would have said on the Generation Game, "Good game, good game!" I think this too is largely about entertainment rather than determining our future.






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