A Personalised Guide to the “Yes” Campaign:

On the 5th of May, we Englishmen (and women) have the chance to change voting history. The ‘yes’ campaign is also known as the Alternative Vote. Aimed at eliminating ‘safe seats’ and to provide fairer representation of the voting public, this new anti-apathetic scheme is very exciting news. It works by using a numerical preferential voting system. Candidates who get the least amount of votes in their constituency, are automatically eliminated. Their votes, according to the voters preference, are distributed to the other candidates, resulting in an overall winner. For more information check out: http://www.yestofairervotes.org/ or if your short for time and want it all explained to you in 3 minutes, see this cute video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Y3jE3B8HsE

I have to admit, i’m a new convert. Apart from my AS level C grade in “Government and Politics”, and occasional trips to Parliament for touristic and charitable lobbying, my general knowledge of the way in which our government actually works was pretty weak at best. My involvement in AV began when my brother told me about an advert he was going to film on the campaign’s behalf. It was to be a satirical play on the stereotypical ‘safe’ MP, only in office due to past, not present achievements. The plot of the advert sounded pretty funny, so I decided to go along for the day and help out. It was to be an experience i’d never forget.

The day started with me waking up on my brother’s couch, in his two bedroom flat, with one permanent graduate/squatter sharing the living room space with me. One cheap instant coffee downed and me and my brother were on our way to meet our MP for hire, Andrew. An actor by profession, his impersonation of a ‘caring’ MP never failed to impress me. The aim was to film a montage of the MP doing wonderful and energetic things for his community, and enjoying the unfailing popularity he received. This hilarious series of clips of the most unbelievably lovable MP in history was to abruptly end with the same MP, waking up from a nap in his office in Parliament. He would then describe his dream (with disgust) to his secretary, saying something like “I had the most awful nightmare; I dreamt I actually had to work for peoples votes!”

We began the project by filming Andrew kissing a baby, and swooning over her and her mother. I’ve never had to knock on the door of a new mother’s house before, and ask if we could film some random actor kiss her baby, then leave! The baby was pretty adorable, despite it’s crying swiftly after Andrew touched her. We then met up with two other helpers and headed to the Elephant and Castle market. If you’ve never been before, i’m not going to recommend visiting it. We were shunned by the elderly, asked if we could share any profits of the (clearly voluntary) film with a Rastafarian shop assistant, and at one point we were threatened by a rather shifty undercover policeman not to get him in any of the shots. These, though amusing, did little to help out cause.

Our situation was saved by meeting some AV campaigners along the Embankment. Clad in bright purple with “Vote Yes!” balloons, the dramatic effect looked great on film. After staging a inspirational lecture from Andrew, we stole half of the campaigners and asked them to come with us to a nearby Nursery School. Some cheap red tape and a pair of fake novelty scissors, though laughable in reality, did the job and our Nursery was dramatically transformed into Andrew’s latest community favor. The ‘grand’ (insignificant) opening of the ‘new’ (dilapidated) School was the finale to our filming for the day. Even the misappropriated “Just Married” confetti, which my brother had purchased by mistake, looked great on film, and sealed the dream-like effect intended.

The entire day was pretty surreal and dream-like in itself, and most of it, admittedly was spent simply laughing at the bizarre-ness of it all. It’s not every day I get to film an Actor sweet talking policemen, commuters and unknowing pedestrians, and i’ll happily let on that I have a small cameo role in the advert itself! Let’s hope that this short film goes lengths in turning the “Yes” dream into a reality we can all be proud of on May 5th.