The Forgotten Referendum

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Bust-ups, bums and Brexit's beginning? - Chris Mason tells the story of the AV referendum.

Chris Mason, the only reporter still standing when the count of the AV referendum was announced, looks again at a forgotten campaign and uncovers its impact on British politics.

Ask someone what they think of when they hear the word 'referendum' - and chances are it won't be the 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote - the Forgotten Referendum.

The only reporter still standing when the final count was announced, Any Questions presenter and Political Correspondent Chris Mason, takes a deep dive into the archive of a decade ago to tell the story of a campaign that arguably failed to capture the public's imagination but whose political impact was wide-ranging.  Chris discovers how much the 2011 campaign can teach us about the EU referendum held five years later and uncovers what might have happened had the result gone the other way. Would Jeremy Corbyn be Prime Minister? Would Brexit have happened?

Chris interviews key figures from the campaign - including, among others, Sir Nick Clegg, Lord Hague, Dame Margaret Beckett and Alan Johnson - and the people who made it all happen behind the scenes - including the director of the NotoAV campaign, Matthew Elliott, who later became the Chief Executive of Vote Leave, and the Chair of the YestoFairerVotes campaign Katie Ghose. 

Together, they use the wisdom of the intervening years to respond to archive from the campaign, analyse where the battle was won and lost, and consider how the fallout is still felt today. This is a story about political messaging, power and our collective memory. But it's also about a split Labour party, the politics of Coalition, and the influence of one of the last decade's most influential campaigners. 

Presenter: Chris Mason
Producer: Camellia Sinclair for BBC Audio, Bristol

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