I find all this very worrying. People saying fascism and populism are defeated in a time when the world's only superpower is in the hands of a populist (voted in.) The Russians are doing whatever they want and no-one dares pull them up on it. China's leader is going to be the lifetime emperor. Saudi Arabia do whatever they want to do. Turkey is turning into a dictatorship before everyone's eyes and quickly too. North Korea blast missiles into the air and Syria goes around slaughtering anyone who doesn't have a picture of Assad on any wall in their "once home" that might still be standing. What does the west do? Make idle threats to them all and do nothing. Draw red lines then ignore them. Progress eh!!! As for this not being communism. Do you think the Tories practice Conservatism? Does any ideology really stand up once they get into power? The ideology breaks straight away. Communism and Socialism "could" be quite attractive when given the basics on paper. Putting it into practice though just means different hands in the pot once they see the gold.
A piece about the Tories trialling the use of photo ID being produced at the polling booth. 28 cases of ID fraud at the 2017 election, yet the introduction of photo ID would wipe 3.5 million from the electorate, primarily from the poorer sector, who, coincidentally, are more likely to vote against the Conservatives. Have we ever had a more openly corrupt government? https://www.theguardian.com/comment...voting-booths-labour-disadvantaged-ballot-box
Same trick the republicans have been doing in the USA for a while. Poor and less educated can’t work there way through the system so don’t vote.
To make this more impacting Badger, you should have used the old vidiprinter style with the number.... ... 28 (TWENTY-EIGHT) cases of ID fraud.... Barmy. Unless of course you missed out three or four zeros from your number
I’m guessing now, but the two most popular forms of photo iD could be driving license and passport. Having both of these come at an initial cost (driving lessons, passport fee) and potentially an indication of car ownership and foreign travel. Both of which possibly indicate disposable income. Just a guess though.
28 discovered and reported. It never fails to surprise me how easy it would be for someone to vote using another person’s identity - one doesn’t even have to take the letter received to the polling station. Many other countries require ID before voting and I, for one, think it’s a good idea, but then I think having a National ID card is a good idea. Guess that makes me a fascist ......
It's only a pilot at the moment and lots of people have objected. Officials have said, according to the BBC, that 'they will show some leeway at polling stations taking part in the trial and may allow proof of address, such as a utility bill, instead of photo ID.' Hopefully this will help solve the problem and they will make allowances like this for people without photo ID. There seems to be enough objections for them to be giving it some more thought. We shall see. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-43300100
If you have a family of, mum, dad and 2 or 3 vote age children living in the same house, utility bills won’t carry all their names. For this to work, a system needs to be put in place guaranteeing everyone access to an acceptable photo ID card, as a substitute for driving licences or passports, at NO cost to those that need them, otherwise we will see the same dilemma as we have now with people having to decide if they can afford a non essential expense.
It does look to me rather like a non-problem which, a cynic would say, was being addressed by a party in Govt who expect to benefit from putting hurdles in front of voters with less orderly lives. This tactic has been used aggressively in Republican States in the US, where the impact has been greatest among often impoverished - and predominately black or Hispanic - inner city communities. Hopefully measures will be taken in the UK to prevent that happening. But I am suspicious in part because I really don't think there is much of a problem - polling cards are delivered by Royal Mail, a trusted organisation, to individuals at the addresses registered on the Electoral Roll. There isn't much opportunity for fraud unless, say, a son uses a father's poll card.
Even then, unless the father had no intention to vote, when the father goes to the polling station to vote and gives his name and address(i think thats how it works? i've always done postal.) they will see on the list he's already been in to vote and it will be registered as a case of voter fraud. until the number of these cases is enough to actually influence the result in a constituency (ie 15 cases in Itchen where they won by 30 votes), then no action really needs to be taken other than trying to find out who committed the fraud. The side effects of this treatment seem to be far worse than the actual problem.
Seems like a reasonable idea let's hope they think of it. I assume it would be just available to people without access to other id otherwise the expense will put people off unfortunately.
it would be interesting to see what percentage does not have a driving license or passport, and would they vote anyway. to say poor people dont drive surely has no footing, not having a passport i can see as more financial. my mum for example does not have a passport or driving license, and it was not because of financial reasons
I did hear a few years ago that postal votes were a concern as some multiple occupancy accommodations had people registered who didn't live there. One individual was then voting multiple times under different names. Also the question of students voting twice was recently raised. No idea how prolific any of this is.
Another thing to add to this debate is that it wasn’t that long ago that the way we register to vote was changed from the head of a household registering all eligible voters living at that address, to a system where everyone has to register individually. This was considered detrimental to the less well educated and those from impoverished backgrounds, not grasping the importance of needing to do this. Again, the most likely areas to be affected, by this change, was those that don’t traditionally vote for the Tories.
