Eddie Izzard – saying Yes2AV all over Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter

| Readers 63
Representatives from local parties supporting AV meeting Eddie Izzard

Within an hour or so at landing at Belfast City Airport on the latest stop in his non-stop campaign schedule, Eddie Izzard had been greeted by Dawn Purvis (who’s in favour of AV), had a look inside the Black Box, given a pep talk to runners in tomorrow’s Belfast Marathon, met leading politicians from local parties supporting AV and retired to Malmaison for a purple (non-alcoholic) cocktail … as well as spontaneously canvassing numerous passers – even the receptionist at the Malmaison – about the merits of voting Yes to AV on Thursday 5th May.

Asked why he was supporting the switch to Alternative Vote, Izzard replied:

I think it’s a fairer system … I think it’s going to make MPs work harder for us … MPs will not only talk to their core campaign support but they’ll have to talk around it and get second choice votes, I think that’s better.

Northern Ireland voters are used to voting 1,2,3 in STV elections. But voter turnout is potentially a growing problem. Could AV do anything for engagement?

There’re a lot of people around the UK who feel this is a safe seat and I disagree with the politics of the person sitting in this seat so I’m not even going to bother voting. This gives them more of a chance.

At nearly all stages, a purple “Yes” speech bubble appeared behind the comic’s head. If there was a prize for maximising the number of purple-themed photo-opportunities within an hour, the Yes2AV campaign might be looking more hopeful than they are in the upcoming referendum.

Has anyone seen a fish?

Eddie Izzard giving some of tomorrow's marathon runners a quick pep talk

Representatives from local parties supporting AV meeting Eddie Izzard

Malmaison barman pouring a purple cocktail for Eddie Izzard #Yes2AV

Eddie Izzard sipping a purple cocktail in Malmaison #Yes2AV

Feel free to suggest captions for the photo immediately below. I’ll start with

“AV seeks to release the political roadblock?”

or

“Building a new style of politics?”

Eddie Izzard attempting to release political roadblock by backing Yes2AV campaign?
At one point, Alex Huston – 17 year old election agent campaign director for 18 year old independent Assembly candidate Stephen Stewart in East Belfast – interrupted proceedings to challenge Izzard about the downsides of AV. However, I think it’s fair to say the comic was under-impressed with the pinstriped youth’s argument.

Discover more from Slugger O'Toole

Subscribe to get the latest posts to your email.

Recent posts

Frank Schnittger

Getting Real about Northern Ireland

Slugger Team

Hundreds of mattresses dumped on bonfire site…

Hugh Doyle

Banning of the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels…

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated. 

Give a monthly donation Give a one-off donation