Today is Queen’s Speech Day when the Government of the UK sets out its proposals for legislation for the coming Parliamentary session. However this year it is an odd Queen’s Speech from a Government that is ruling as a minority party in the Commons because the Opposition parties such as Labour and the Liberal Democrats are too frightened to allow an early election which they suspect they would lose. With polls showing that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is distrusted by 76% of voters you can see why. Therefore the odd thing about this Queen’s Speech is not that it is a statement of the Government’s intent with regards legislation, but it is more an election pitch for when an election is eventually called.
One of the more interesting parts of this year’s Queen’s Speech are proposals from the Government to bring in legislation that will compel voters to produce photographic identification when voting along with restrictions on proxy voting and postal voting. This legislation is in my view long overdue. The loosening up of voter identification rules and the introduction of postal voting on demand by the former Labour administration of Tony Blair, has been an utter and complete disaster. It has created a serious problem with fake voters and fake votes that has lowered the public’s trust in democracy and in the integrity of the voting process.
The ability of voters to have postal votes on demand has been exploited by some groups, particularly Muslims, to create fake voters and thereby fraudulently elect candidates, often Labour Party ones, who will do the Muslim’s bidding at the expense of everyone else. This has been particularly notable in places like Tower Hamlets in London where bent votes have allowed the area to become completely controlled by Muslims. This sort of voting fraud was also suspected to have played a part in the Peterborough by-election earlier this year when Labour took the seat in large part because of dubious postal votes.
The Government is proposing, following pilot studies, that all those going to the polling station will have to produce legitimate photo ID such as a passport or a driving licence in order to vote. Those without such identification will be able to get a ‘voting ID’ from their local authority. There will also be restrictions on Proxy Votes with proxies only being able to case two proxy votes. Postal votes will also be more closely looked at, something that to my mind should have been done years ago.
Whilst I welcome these moves by the government to protect the integrity of the electoral process, I can see some areas where fraud could still occur and believe that the proposals do not go far enough. I’m highly uneasy about the idea of local councils giving out voter ID’s. It’s not beyond the bounds of possibility that those councils that are dominated by Muslims already may game the local voter ID system to continue to create fake voters and fake votes. For example those from outside an electoral area could pose as a local voter, get an ID from the council (which may not be that rigorous in carrying out checks on identification) and vote in that area. I certainly would not trust councils in places like Tower Hamlets, Newham or Redbridge in East London to administer this system honestly. I also would not trust the same Labour Party that has benefited from fraudulent votes to not be equally fraudulent with any new system.
As good as these proposals may be, I tend to agree with the You Tube commentator Jeff Taylor that they don’t go far enough. There needs to be much more of a restriction on postal votes than that which is proposed. I would like to see a complete ban on postal voting unless an elector can prove that they have a physical disability that prevents them from attending a polling station or those who are currently deployed as members of Her Majesty’s Armed Forces. Only a complete shutdown of the far too easily abused postal voting system can bring back some form of probity and integrity to an electoral system that has been heavily damaged by the actions of the previous Labour administration.
The Government’s proposals for bringing more integrity to the voting system has, predictably, brought out the whiners of the Left complaining about them. The Guardian recently carried a story where various left wing individuals and organisations such as Operation Black Vote and Liberty along with Labour MP Cat Smith, accusing the Conservatives of ‘voter suppression’ and wanting to ‘rig’ the voting system. These complaints really are a case of ‘MRD applies’ or ‘they would say that wouldn’t they’? After all it is the Left that seems to benefit most from the current system where voter fraud in the form of fake postal votes often end up in the Labour party’s pile. However to my mind the real voter suppression is that caused by fake votes from equally fake voters being used to sideline and nullify the genuine votes of real voters.
These are the most sensible proposals to tackle various types of voter fraud that I’ve seen coming from government in many years. Although they do not go far enough in tackling the issue of postal vote fraud and they still leave openings for fraud via local council issued photo ID, they should be welcomed. For far too long we have allowed our councils and our Parliamentary constituencies to become ‘Rotten Boroughs’ because of voter fraud and these proposals may at last represent some attempt by government to stop it.
