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Electoral reform referendum: Nick Clegg speech on AV; Nick Clegg speech SOT - Thank the IPPR for their report / Liberals have been champions of political reform since the formation of our party more than a century and a half ago / House of Lords reform, party funding, devolution – and of course, reform of the voting system / It is no surprise then that this Coalition government is determined to be a radical reforming government, particularly when it comes to changing politics / Right now, the British people are finally getting the opportunity to have their say on how the MPs who represent them are elected / Today I want to explode some of the myths being propagated by the opponents of AV; explain why I think first past the post needs to go; and describe the political challenge of facing down vested interests in order to deliver liberal reform / First, though, I’d like to briefly remind you of the background to the current debate / When the expenses scandals were exposed nearly two years ago, a long-standing erosion of faith in our political institutions erupted into a full-blown crisis / It became clear that the distance between people and their representatives had grown into a divide big enough to threaten the legitimacy of parliament / When the stories of duck houses and moat cleaning hit the front pages, apathy and resentment turned into anger / As we decide, as a nation, on whether to keep first past the post or move to an AV voting system, it is important to keep in mind that we have a political crisis in Britain to match the financial crisis that threatened our economy / Switching to a fairer system will not fix all of our democracy’s ills overnight / I don’t expect the first parliament elected under AV will be full of MPs with the wisdom of Pericles and the virtue of Lincoln / But it will be a strong start to the job of cleaning up politics / The Alternative Vote addresses some of the deepest problems in our current system / It means all MPs will ...