FOR the first time, the British people will have a choice about the system they use to elect their MPs.

This was the announcement made this week to the House of Commons by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg on a package of desperately needed progressive political reforms.

The reform package includes the establishment of fixed-term parliaments — the Prime Minister will no longer have the power to call general elections at his or her whim.

It also includes decreasing the number of MPs from 650 to 600 and equalising the number of people each MP represents. As of now, the number of constituents can vary by up to almost 30,000 people. That means in some places your vote is worth far less in our unbalanced system.

Finally, Clegg announced that on May 5, 2011 – the same day as local elections in England – there will be a referendum on whether to adopt the Alternative Vote (AV). With AV, voters simply rank their preference for the candidates on the ballot.

Already, thunderous criticism of the AV system has been hurled by its critics. They claim AV produces unstable coalitions and benefits only the Liberal Democrats. They say such instability will lead to chaos in our markets.

While AV would address under-representation of the Lib Dems (and other parties) in Parliament, the truth is both Labour and the Conservatives have internal divisions over AV.

Great swathes of the Labour party favour AV, which is why their last manifesto called for a referendum.

Among the Tories, London Mayor Boris Johnson, himself elected via a form of AV, has claimed he is "agnostic" on this issue while others have claimed the new system would be "confusing for the voters".

Put simply, our system now is unfair and needs changing. The first-past-the-post system we currently have hands power to the lucky few who live in marginal constituencies and sucks it away from the vast majority who do not. AV would give power back to people in making their voting intentions clearer. No longer would voters need to suffer a "wasted" vote.

I believe it is encouraging that this Government has firmly decided to give British voters a much greater say in who is chosen to represent them.

Over the next ten months there will be many MPs who will fight tooth and nail to keep the status quo because it protects them from the need to win outright majority support. Liberal Democrats will not be among them.