AV: final words from the Yes and No campaigns

The moment of truth has come for Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. Today, Britons are voting in a referendum to decide whether to ditch the current first-past-the-post electoral system in favour of the alternative vote (AV).

The referendum is widely regarded as the only reason why many left-leaning Lib Dem MPs agreed to go into coalition with the Conservative party following last year's indecisive general election, which returned a hung parliament.

Unfortunately for the Lib Dems, two polls today give an overwhelming lead to the 'No to AV' campaign: the Guardian/ICM poll puts the No campaign on 68 per cent with the Yes campaign on 32. A Yougov poll for the Sun gives a slightly narrower gap of 60 to 40.

Intriguingly, a poll for the Metro actually gives the Yes campaign a lead of 47 to 43 per cent. However, this is a survey of the newspaper's readers, who in March decided that Leona Lewis was London's most influential woman of the last century.

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING ABOUT AV:
Nick Clegg, Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister: "For years, politicians and parties have courted the votes of a few thousand people in marginal seats and ignored the rest. For years, MPs with jobs for life have put their feet up and taken you for granted. No wonder people have given up caring. No wonder confidence in politics is so low."

William Hague, foreign secretary: "It's nobody's first choice. Even its supporters see it as a compromise on the way to something else. It is a second or third choice system that favours second choice candidates."

Eddie Izzard, comedian: "It's not like it was in the Fifties when broadly people were voting for the Labour Party or Tories. Politics is multi-coloured and people's lives are multi-coloured. We have never had a chance in 100 years to vote for how we do the voting, so I think it is good we take this chance otherwise we will wake up with politics as usual on May 6."

Max Hastings, Daily Mail: "Crusaders for the AV voting system have a point when they assert that it is more 'democratic': it would grant a presence in Parliament to minority and frankly lunatic interests whose electoral support is currently under-represented in the Commons. But is this what we want? Compromise is the hallmark of almost all coalitions, and we surely have enough of this without institutionalising it."

David Cameron, prime minister, writing in the Daily Mail: "First-past-the-post is a relatively cheap, simple and decisive voting system which means you can kick out governments when they've run out of steam. That's why it's used by half the planet.  AV on the other hand is so confusing, unfair and obscure that it is only used by Australia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea."

David Aaronovitch, the Times: "The result of operating a three or more party system through an election system made just for two is a series of growing problems. One is increased tactical voting, with voters urged to put their X against the person who can prevent their least-liked candidate from getting in. In my constituency in 2010 all three main parties urged voters not to support their favoured candidate but to vote tactically. This practice alienates voters from their votes. It's bully politics."

Vince Cable, business secretary: "It's been largely forgotten that Liberal and Labour MPs voted AV through the House of Commons but in 1931 the reform was never completed. Conservative governments have dominated ever since without securing a majority of the popular vote."

Stephen Fry, actor and writer: "The last couple of years have been faintly depressing for anyone who cares about the health of our political system. Yes, Westminster has made a start putting its house in order, but we still have a voting system in place that is not up to the job."

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, in the Evening Standard: "If we do vote for AV, it will not, alas, be the end of the story. The reformers will want more. They will demand top-ups and list systems, and lo - we will have a new raft of politicians elected on a different basis from the others. They will be creatures of the party, people who have managed to grease their way to top positions on the list. We will have achieved exactly what the public does not want."

Matthew Elliott, director of 'No to AV' campaign, in the Spectator: "People who vote for the fringe parties, like the BNP, can have their votes counted several times under AV, while those voting for mainstream parties have their vote counted just once. I regard that as profoundly unfair."

John Reid, former Labour minister: "The Liberals, who are in government, are desperately appealing to Labour voters in order to use Labour as a lifeboat. My message to Labour supporters would be quite simple... all we would say is don't be used by the Liberals."

Ed Miliband, Labour leader: "This isn't about Nick Clegg. This is about whether we change our politics for the better and this is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to do it. This is a chance to make more people's views count and a chance to change the yah-boo political culture, because we will all have to reach out more."

Armando Iannuci, comedy screenwriter, in the Independent: "Don't take my word for it; take David Cameron's. He was elected under AV. All party leaders were. Cameron is drawing up legislation to elect police commissioners under it. He has troops in Afghanistan fighting to maintain a democracy where voters list their candidates in order of preference. We list candidates in order of preference in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, London and European elections. It is actually a profoundly British thing to do." ·