Another insane Bill from the Tories that was not talked about properly during the election campaign.
Wow another incredibly antidemocratic bill from the Conservatives.
>though reports have concluded there is no evidence of widespread voter impersonation in the UK, with just two people convicted for in-person voter fraud across the 2017 and 2019 elections.
So why are they doing this then?
This, killing the bbc, the policing bill, the borders bill. We’re just slowly slipping more and more to a privatised authoritarian hell hole with no way to get out of it.
Giving Ministers control over the INDEPENDENT Electoral Commission takes us one giant step towards the farce that is US democracy.
And taking us AWAY from proportional representation, as used in multiple mature democracies, is also fucking outrageous.
By voters ID does that mean a special one? Or can a debit/credit card count?
The Tories really are on a mission to turn this country into a complete hellscape.
“Tory MP David Davis, who rebelled on an amendment to remove voter ID provisions but obeyed the whip in voting for the third reading, joined critics by warning the legislation “risks undermining one of the most fundamental rights we have here in the UK – to vote freely without restriction.”
‘This is terrible!’ *votes for it anyway*
I assume this is easier than actually coming out with policies that the majority of citizens want so will vote for you?
I’m convinced this is going to backfire on them. Any person under the age of 35 who drinks alcohol (or smokes), already has ID and carries it around everywhere. The only people who don’t carry ID around are teetotallers and people too old to be carded.
Labour are not going to lose much vote from of teetotal young people not being able to vote, but the Tories just might. Quite a few elderly people still like to vote in person, and are IMO the least likely to get the message. I’d say quite a few Tory voters will turn up at the next election with no ID.
Its been a bit overlooked but I personally think that the changes to the mayoral voting system is probably the worst element of this.
It’s a clear attempt to change the existing rules explicitly to make it easier for tory mayors to be elected…
I mean when it comes to the voter id piece you can make arguments for it and obfuscate the intention but with this it is just so blatantly obvious
The actual list of ID that counts. This is a little more generous than I expected (eg expiry date explicitly doesn’t matter), but that’s not to say that this is remotely justified or proportionate
In this rule a “specified document” means any of the following
documents (in whatever form issued to the holder and regardless of any expiry date) that contain a photograph of the holder—
(a) a United Kingdom passport (see paragraph (1I));
(b) a passport issued by an EEA state or a Commonwealth country;
(c) a licence to drive a motor vehicle granted under—
(i) Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, or 15
(ii) the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (SI
1981/154 (N.I. 1));
(d) a driving licence issued by any of the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or an EEA state;
(e) a biometric immigration document issued in accordance with regulations under section 5 of the UK Borders Act 2007;
(f) an identity card bearing the Proof of Age Standards
Scheme hologram (a PASS card);
(g) a Ministry of Defence Form 90 (Defence Identity Card);
(h) any of the following concessionary travel passes—
(i) one funded by the Government of the United Kingdom, the Scottish Government or the Welsh Government;
(ii) an Oyster 60+ card; 30
(iii) a Freedom Pass;
(i) any of the following concessionary travel passes issued under the Northern Ireland Concessionary Fares Scheme—
(i) a Senior SmartPass;
(ii) a Registered Blind SmartPass or Blind Person’s
SmartPass;
(iii) a War Disablement SmartPass or War Disabled
SmartPass;
(iv) a 60+ SmartPass;
(v) a Half Fare SmartPass; 40
(j) a badge of a form prescribed under section 21 of the
Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 or section
14 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (Northern
Ireland) Act 1978 (blue badge scheme);
(k) an electoral identity document issued under section 13BD
(electoral identity document: Great Britain);
(l) an anonymous elector’s document issued under section
13BE (anonymous elector’s document: Great Britain) the
holder of which has an anonymous entry at the time of
the application for a ballot paper;
(m) an electoral identity card issued under section 13C
(electoral identity card: Northern Ireland);
(n) a national identity card issued by an EEA state.
I’ve been waiting 8 fucking months for a provisional from the DVLA, I’m lucky uni was delayed for me as then I wouldn’t have had a valid ID
Why not just ban all political parties except the Conservatives whilst you’re at it?
The Uk seems to be the only country I know of well without ID cards.
Whenever I apply for a visa anywhere there’s a box for national ID number, which usually becomes NA once you select uk as ur nationality. We are the odd ones.
It would do away with so much bureaucracy, stupid shit like NHS numbers, NI cards and lost passwords. Everything consolidated in one place, it would open up the potential for us to become like Estonia – one of the only nations fully utilising data potential atm – where you log in with ur ID number and ur health records, school records, tax it’s all there. Yes I see the data risks, but frankly even the FBI can’t get into an iPhone – the means exist to make it secure and obfuscate the data.
Obviously this is building a bit on the original news sorry but we need to lay the foundations.
Why is the UK so terrified of “anti democratic” stuff that’s not actually anti democratic and is just positioning for tech development? Is it the anti vaxxer crowd or the brexit crowd or what? There’s some weird streak in this country.
Voting is the greatest freedom we have. That’s why they want to make it as complex as possible.
But ask someone if they had a vaccine and you’re gonna destroy freedom.
Its so fucked up that they’re straight up changing the voting system we can use for mayors without a vote. If they can easily just change to an entirely different voting system that ends largely changing how many votes each party gets then I say whoever gets into power next simply gets rid of the change or add an amendment which is pretty much “also these systems may be used”. Fuck letting it only be the conservatives making shady changes to the voting system.
Why are they even doint the transferable vote thing? If the London assembly were voted by fptp labour would utterly dominate it
Can someone explain to me what’s wrong with making voter ID mandatory? Does not it improve the integrity of the voting process?
Its just another thing they can give their friends a contract to make a pigs dinner of
The day democracy died in the UK.
Tories now have the electorate stitched up.
Thanks guys, spend a fuck tonne of OUR MONEY eliminating a handful of fraudulent votes.
Guess there must not be anything better to spend it on??
I feel so disappointed by this and at a complete loss. Maybe I should protest? Oh wait I will get arrested for that. Fuck the Torys and fuck eveyone who voted for them.
Why get rid of transferable votes? Are they just trying to cement FPTP?
The mayoral one is such a fix. Massive backwards step.
Voter ID is such an obvious thing that you have to wonder how any true democracy can not have it.
27 comments
Another insane Bill from the Tories that was not talked about properly during the election campaign.
Wow another incredibly antidemocratic bill from the Conservatives.
>though reports have concluded there is no evidence of widespread voter impersonation in the UK, with just two people convicted for in-person voter fraud across the 2017 and 2019 elections.
So why are they doing this then?
This, killing the bbc, the policing bill, the borders bill. We’re just slowly slipping more and more to a privatised authoritarian hell hole with no way to get out of it.
Giving Ministers control over the INDEPENDENT Electoral Commission takes us one giant step towards the farce that is US democracy.
And taking us AWAY from proportional representation, as used in multiple mature democracies, is also fucking outrageous.
If you want to know who voted for this bill, you can see that at https://votes.parliament.uk/Votes/Commons/Division/1197
By voters ID does that mean a special one? Or can a debit/credit card count?
The Tories really are on a mission to turn this country into a complete hellscape.
“Tory MP David Davis, who rebelled on an amendment to remove voter ID provisions but obeyed the whip in voting for the third reading, joined critics by warning the legislation “risks undermining one of the most fundamental rights we have here in the UK – to vote freely without restriction.”
‘This is terrible!’ *votes for it anyway*
I assume this is easier than actually coming out with policies that the majority of citizens want so will vote for you?
I’m convinced this is going to backfire on them. Any person under the age of 35 who drinks alcohol (or smokes), already has ID and carries it around everywhere. The only people who don’t carry ID around are teetotallers and people too old to be carded.
Labour are not going to lose much vote from of teetotal young people not being able to vote, but the Tories just might. Quite a few elderly people still like to vote in person, and are IMO the least likely to get the message. I’d say quite a few Tory voters will turn up at the next election with no ID.
Its been a bit overlooked but I personally think that the changes to the mayoral voting system is probably the worst element of this.
It’s a clear attempt to change the existing rules explicitly to make it easier for tory mayors to be elected…
I mean when it comes to the voter id piece you can make arguments for it and obfuscate the intention but with this it is just so blatantly obvious
The actual list of ID that counts. This is a little more generous than I expected (eg expiry date explicitly doesn’t matter), but that’s not to say that this is remotely justified or proportionate
In this rule a “specified document” means any of the following
documents (in whatever form issued to the holder and regardless of any expiry date) that contain a photograph of the holder—
(a) a United Kingdom passport (see paragraph (1I));
(b) a passport issued by an EEA state or a Commonwealth country;
(c) a licence to drive a motor vehicle granted under—
(i) Part 3 of the Road Traffic Act 1988, or 15
(ii) the Road Traffic (Northern Ireland) Order 1981 (SI
1981/154 (N.I. 1));
(d) a driving licence issued by any of the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man or an EEA state;
(e) a biometric immigration document issued in accordance with regulations under section 5 of the UK Borders Act 2007;
(f) an identity card bearing the Proof of Age Standards
Scheme hologram (a PASS card);
(g) a Ministry of Defence Form 90 (Defence Identity Card);
(h) any of the following concessionary travel passes—
(i) one funded by the Government of the United Kingdom, the Scottish Government or the Welsh Government;
(ii) an Oyster 60+ card; 30
(iii) a Freedom Pass;
(i) any of the following concessionary travel passes issued under the Northern Ireland Concessionary Fares Scheme—
(i) a Senior SmartPass;
(ii) a Registered Blind SmartPass or Blind Person’s
SmartPass;
(iii) a War Disablement SmartPass or War Disabled
SmartPass;
(iv) a 60+ SmartPass;
(v) a Half Fare SmartPass; 40
(j) a badge of a form prescribed under section 21 of the
Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 or section
14 of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons (Northern
Ireland) Act 1978 (blue badge scheme);
(k) an electoral identity document issued under section 13BD
(electoral identity document: Great Britain);
(l) an anonymous elector’s document issued under section
13BE (anonymous elector’s document: Great Britain) the
holder of which has an anonymous entry at the time of
the application for a ballot paper;
(m) an electoral identity card issued under section 13C
(electoral identity card: Northern Ireland);
(n) a national identity card issued by an EEA state.
I’ve been waiting 8 fucking months for a provisional from the DVLA, I’m lucky uni was delayed for me as then I wouldn’t have had a valid ID
Why not just ban all political parties except the Conservatives whilst you’re at it?
The Uk seems to be the only country I know of well without ID cards.
Whenever I apply for a visa anywhere there’s a box for national ID number, which usually becomes NA once you select uk as ur nationality. We are the odd ones.
It would do away with so much bureaucracy, stupid shit like NHS numbers, NI cards and lost passwords. Everything consolidated in one place, it would open up the potential for us to become like Estonia – one of the only nations fully utilising data potential atm – where you log in with ur ID number and ur health records, school records, tax it’s all there. Yes I see the data risks, but frankly even the FBI can’t get into an iPhone – the means exist to make it secure and obfuscate the data.
Obviously this is building a bit on the original news sorry but we need to lay the foundations.
Why is the UK so terrified of “anti democratic” stuff that’s not actually anti democratic and is just positioning for tech development? Is it the anti vaxxer crowd or the brexit crowd or what? There’s some weird streak in this country.
Voting is the greatest freedom we have. That’s why they want to make it as complex as possible.
But ask someone if they had a vaccine and you’re gonna destroy freedom.
Its so fucked up that they’re straight up changing the voting system we can use for mayors without a vote. If they can easily just change to an entirely different voting system that ends largely changing how many votes each party gets then I say whoever gets into power next simply gets rid of the change or add an amendment which is pretty much “also these systems may be used”. Fuck letting it only be the conservatives making shady changes to the voting system.
Why are they even doint the transferable vote thing? If the London assembly were voted by fptp labour would utterly dominate it
Can someone explain to me what’s wrong with making voter ID mandatory? Does not it improve the integrity of the voting process?
Its just another thing they can give their friends a contract to make a pigs dinner of
The day democracy died in the UK.
Tories now have the electorate stitched up.
Thanks guys, spend a fuck tonne of OUR MONEY eliminating a handful of fraudulent votes.
Guess there must not be anything better to spend it on??
I feel so disappointed by this and at a complete loss. Maybe I should protest? Oh wait I will get arrested for that. Fuck the Torys and fuck eveyone who voted for them.
Why get rid of transferable votes? Are they just trying to cement FPTP?
The mayoral one is such a fix. Massive backwards step.
Voter ID is such an obvious thing that you have to wonder how any true democracy can not have it.