Boxing Day – a special day when you can put your feet up after the excesses of Christmas. A great day for the Government to slip out controversial proposals for future elections.
Those involved with local politics have known for some time there was a problem both with impersonation and with the fraudulent use of postal votes. The blunt truth is a specific one that is, sadly, mainly associated with criminal elements in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities.
Sad too, that all political parties have turned a blind eye to such practices when it suited them. But these proposals are no solution and are in danger of becoming a form of voter suppression aimed at the young and those who lack ready access to passports and driving licences.
It is interesting that a request for date of birth details which would not disadvantage such groups has been ruled as a form of voter identification by the Government.
The suggestion to introduce compulsory ID checks for the 2020 General Election will be a logistical and legal nightmare for local councils. And guess who will be sued by irate citizens denied the right to vote? It isn’t going to be the secretary of state.
The real answer is a robust application of the existing law rather than a wholesale change to the electoral process in this country. Those with long memories will remember that electoral irregularities in Hackney in the 1990s ceased when those involved were imprisoned. The question the ‘Pickles Review’ avoided is why the modern-day police force and criminal prosecution services are reluctant to commence criminal proceedings even in the face of ample evidence.
Since the introduction of the universal franchise 100 years ago our electoral system has been predicated on the premise of encouraging as many people to register and vote as possible. There is no substantial evidence produced by the Electoral Commission that this long established trust-based system has broken down on a national basis.
If we are going to change the fundamentals of our electoral process then let’s do it properly, preferably by a speaker’s convention which can properly examine all the available information rather than a politically compromised proposal rushed out just after Christmas dinner.
Paul Wheeler is director of the Political Skills Forum and writes on local politics