The Tories are using that nebulous "commitment to FPTP" in their manifesto to change the electoral system for mayors and police commisioners. They are getting ride of the AV system for PR in order to engineer more Tory wins!!! The dictatorship cannot be seen to lose face in ANYTHING, even in mayoral contests. They must have total control.

It's also part of their attempt to squeeze out smaller parties. Under FPTP, the Green and Lib Dem vote in London would have been well and truly squeezed. That's one reason why Labour have always resisted making any significant changes.

Yeh it’s easy for two big parties to assimilate any growing protest campaigns within the larger parties so UKIP meant DC called a ref thereby getting rid of the threat and so on and so forth!

They’re also pushing ahead with their unnecessary but discriminatory proposal to ensure photo ID is required for voting to deal with non existent voter fraud. Weirdly a few Tories that I can’t normally stand like David Davis doesn’t agree. Plus some say it’ll be easier for younger tech savvy metropolitan voters to get ID then Tory red wallers. Probably won’t go through but just shows ow much they want divine right to power.

Yeah it's totally bonkers, really don't get it other than someone seems it as an idea to supress votes. Pretty sure I read it's resulted in loads of people being turned away. It's not like voting turnout is great in the first place! Just find it really bonkers, not everyone can afford or needs a passport and it's assuming people have driving licenses too (which are great if you live rurally, but suspect less people in cities hold them as there is less need). Or of course I'm sure there will be an admin fee to get a pretty ID card. Hopefully this is one of the revolts the backbenchers manage to successfully rebel.

Heard that you can apply for a free Photo ID card (not very libertarian and waste of money) but if you’re going to go to that trouble you might as well just go for a postal vote which erm, has several more cases of voter fraud than in-person!

We have always needed ID in NI as far as I know though it shouldn’t be a prerequisite as it’ll obvious affect the poor who have more chaotic lifestyles. I got a new passport last year and it came with an ID card you can fit in your wallet which is handy as fook!

Soon the Tory party will get rid of elections altogether as they will be seen as "a distraction from the things which are important to people" and woke and an attack on British values. And only half joking!

Such an infuriating thing to push through. It seems like common sense and if you argue it wrong it makes it sound like poor people are too dumb to get ID, but any electoral hurdle is very detrimental to those too busy with their lives, too crushed under modern society, in terms of them voting and being able to vote in people who would improve their situation.

Of all the things that could potentially be done to reform elections in the UK, this wasn’t even on my list - never mind being at the bottom of it!!!

 

If we wanna make changes, let’s have the franchise for the GE match that for Holyrood/Senedd elections. Then let’s have a nationwide AMS system or other form of PR. (AMS feels like a reasonable compromise tbh). Let’s move Election Day to a Sunday and make it a national public holiday to make it easier for working folks to vote by shutting shops and that. It only happens once every 5 years in theory so The economic cost won’t be wild but totally worth it for increased participation. Basically do something to increase turnout and engagement.

 

 

But that runs counter to what all Tories actually want. And that’s a smaller franchise (they voted against holyroods increased franchise and I assume they did the same in Wales) and more barriers to voting so only their voters are the ones empowered to vote so they can gain further control. See also the Republicans. Basically those on the right seem to be viewing democracy as a „yes you can vote, but only if it’s in the way I want“

Of all the things that could potentially be done to reform elections in the UK, this wasn’t even on my list - never mind being at the bottom of it!!!

 

If we wanna make changes, let’s have the franchise for the GE match that for Holyrood/Senedd elections. Then let’s have a nationwide AMS system or other form of PR. (AMS feels like a reasonable compromise tbh). Let’s move Election Day to a Sunday and make it a national public holiday to make it easier for working folks to vote by shutting shops and that. It only happens once every 5 years in theory so The economic cost won’t be wild but totally worth it for increased participation. Basically do something to increase turnout and engagement.

But that runs counter to what all Tories actually want. And that’s a smaller franchise (they voted against holyroods increased franchise and I assume they did the same in Wales) and more barriers to voting so only their voters are the ones empowered to vote so they can gain further control. See also the Republicans. Basically those on the right seem to be viewing democracy as a „yes you can vote, but only if it’s in the way I want“

 

YES!!! YES!!!!

 

It is possible it could backfire on the one party state elected dictatorship, however. Whilst it will force more people onto postal votes, with the counting company run by a Tory, who rushed to acquire it!!, which isn't great, perhaps those they are denying a vote will be Tories- oaps, Brexit party hard righters, and people in the red wall who felt so abandoned they had to turn to brexit/ Tory. They are likely city voters with less of a need for a licence.

Oh, but the evil ones ARE doing ONE THING that's good: they are bringing in the eternal franchise, as Dodgy Dave promised. It's about time!

I do wish we had a PR voting system. I wouldn't be surprised if under a PR system you had a lot more variety in the parties in government. A lot of people won't feel their vote is then wasted if they want to vote a party that isn't Conservatives or Labour. In a PR system, I wouldn't be surprised if the green party ended up with a lot more votes/MPs.

YES!!! YES!!!!

 

It is possible it could backfire on the one party state elected dictatorship, however. Whilst it will force more people onto postal votes, with the counting company run by a Tory, who rushed to acquire it!!, which isn't great, perhaps those they are denying a vote will be Tories- oaps, Brexit party hard righters, and people in the red wall who felt so abandoned they had to turn to brexit/ Tory. They are likely city voters with less of a need for a licence.

Postal votes are counted in the same way as votes in person. The one thing that has been outsourced is checking the details you have to fill in to cast your vote.

 

This idiotic (but wholly predictable) move is on top of their blatant bribery of the electorate. The message to the people of Hartlepool was pretty clear - elect a Tory MP and your town will get some much-needed investment; elect a Labour MP and you can forget the idea of investment, however much it is needed.

Hapless Hancock made his latest Covid statement in the Commons yesterday. After the statement, he faced questions from MPs. A Labour MP asked him a question about testing centres that had been promised last year. Hancock responded by saying that the question did not deserve an answer. Yes, the question was politically loaded but that is not exactly an unusual event in what is supposed to be the centre of UK democracy.

Was gonna say, is everything not political lol!

But according to the Tories, voters don't like an opposition or any kind of accountability- they want they just like a few flags and for Government to "Get on with it". Sadly they seem to be right with are brainwashed public.

The Hartlepool byelection happened because the sitting Labour MP faced a number of sexual allegations against him. He was subsequently found guilty of those allegations. Today, a Tory MP has been found guilty of sexually harassing a member of staff. He hasn't resigned.

The Hartlepool byelection happened because the sitting Labour MP faced a number of sexual allegations against him. He was subsequently found guilty of those allegations. Today, a Tory MP has been found guilty of sexually harassing a member of staff. He hasn't resigned.

Since the thread title is deceit, his statement simply mentions 'asking a male member of Parliamentary staff to dinner' and 'a breach of trust in the MP-staff relationship' with no mention of far worse things that actually caused him to lose the whip. I would hope that most of his constituents learn about it through articles like this one which explains that there's obviously a lot more to it than that.

Feel this piece is better here than in any of the other threads, but I can't quite work out the Cummings picture. So by his account his relationship and influence with the PM dwindled around January 2020 after the election before things took a real sour turn in August/September 2020, before December 2020 happened and he finally resigned. He was fairly honest and under oath, so for the most part I don't feel Cummings had much to hide - but what I really can't work out is why the Government fought so hard to keep him in May 2020 and now he's thrown Hancock and Johnson under a bus. There's something not quite right.

I think the thing to look at is who he didn’t throw under the bus. He was at lengths not to chuck Sunak under the bus for Eat Out to Help Out among other things. Gove also escaped.

 

 

There’s defo an ulterior motive at play, it’s Cummings after all, but I haven’t yet worked out if that is Sunak or Gove for PM when the enquiry sinks Boris