The New Excuse For ID Cards
The Electoral Commission has weighed into the ID Card debate by saying that voters should be asked to produce photographic identification at polling stations in order to combat election fraud.
Sam Younger, the commission’s chairman, told The Times that there was an urgent need for greater security at the ballot box following new safeguards for those voting by post.
He suggested that voters should produce a passport, driving licence or other photo ID at polling booths, or apply for a free electoral identity card.
Nothing terribly wrong with that but he then went on to say that...
...if compulsory ID cards were introduced they would “undoubtedly” be applied in elections. “I wouldn’t want to get into an argument about ID cards. But there is no doubt if you had something as a universal identifier then you would use it in the electoral context, as in others.”
So eventually it could be 'no ID Card, no vote'. This is coming from the Electoral Commission rather than New Labour but it's bound to play into the hands of those trying to impose ID Cards on us. It is New Labour which has been trying to introduce new voting methods (i.e. postal, Internet and telephone voting) in what Sir Alistair Graham of the government's anti-sleaze watchdog last year called an "obsession with modernisation".
Sir Alistair Graham warned that Internet and telephone voting should be abandoned until ministers get a grip on electoral fraud.
The chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life said ministers were ignoring the "hard truth" that fraud had multiplied as a result of the alternative systems.
"Unfortunately it appears to come down to the obsession with modernisation as a means of increasing participation at elections," he said in a speech to the Association of Electoral Administrators.
Useful as these new voting methods may be, they have increased the risk of electoral fraud. The same party that is introducing these new systems is the party that is said to benefit from an increased voter turnout and the same party that has been caught up in some recent cases of electoral fraud. Labour was told to tighten up security on postal voting after a judge two years ago lambasted Labour for refusing to do so after one case of "widespread fraud" in Birmingham.
Responding to an earlier refusal from the government to overhaul the postal voting rules he said: "Anybody who has sat through the case I have just tried and listened to evidence of electoral fraud that would disgrace a banana republic would find this statement surprising."
There were similar cases in London with Tower Hamlets getting some scrutiny after complaints from George Galloway. Each time it was Labour in the spotlight. You'd think that Labour would have learned something from all this but it seems that a similar situation is arising in the coming Council Elections.
THE Labour party is facing a voting scandal on the eve of this week’s local elections after an undercover investigation by The Sunday Times.
Keith Wakefield, the leader of the Labour group on Leeds city council, told party canvassers to help voters, many of whom were elderly, to complete their postal ballots. Student activists, including an undercover reporter, were then told by another councillor to take away the postal voting forms, hide them as they left people’s homes and only post them later if they were for Labour.
The councillor, Graham Hyde, admitted, in a secretly tape-recorded meeting, that he thought the instructions to collect the postal votes were “illegal”. Hyde, a parliamentary aide to a former Labour whip, warned the student activists that after collecting votes: “Don’t get caught with any on you. We are not supposed to collect them.” He even joked about flushing postal ballots down the lavatory if they were for the Liberal Democrats.
Strange that the subject of ID Cards should come up again at the time of an election with yet another story of sleaze when we've recently heard that millions of people intend to rebel against ID Cards. Another interesting thing was that Sam Younger, the electoral commission’s chairman, suggested that voters could apply for a free electoral identity card. If that's the case and it's secure enough to prevent electoral fraud then why do any of us need an expensive ID Card from the party that seems to excel in electoral fraud?
There has been much talk of
There has been much talk of Identity, proof of identity, identity management, ID cards, RFID passports etc.
Firstly it needs to be established as to who ‘owns’ ones identity. Who owns me? Is it the state or me?
I contend that it is myself who owns my identity, I own my eyes, and their colour, I own my name, I own my height and any other physical, biological orDNA characteristics about my being.
If we can establish in law that I own my identity, in such the same way asIPS is established, then I can licence, either indefinitely or for a set period of time any government department, public bodies, or indeed marketing companies etc to use certain details of my identity for specific purposes.
Those purposes could be for certain state functions, benefits, voting etc.
If my identity is subsequently used for any other purposes, then the holder of my licence must apply for an extension to the terms of their licence in order to do so, or not use those details.
If my identity is subsequently shared with anyone else, unless my licence to them specifically states that they may share those details, they would be in breach of the licence and could be sued under the law.
This would mean that certain marketing companies for instance would be put out of business, which to some would be no bad thing, as they would be trading in illegally obtained identities.
However, the first step in any such scheme would indeed to establish in law, who owns my identity. I do believe that this would also be in keeping with the terms of the UN convention on human rights.
I would say this surprises
I would say this surprises me but it doesn't.
Matters not a jot to me anyway as I'll never have one even if they introduce them (and lets face it, Labour are going down the pan so if the Tories do what they've promised, its a non issue).
Find it ironic though that the claims these cards are needed to prevent fraud at elections given that its the Labour party who keep getting caught for it!
All of this stuff boils my blood to be honest but at least its nearly over. Blair to go with a whimper, Brown likely to be thrown out at the first opportunity.
Perhaps then we can start to undo the significant damage caused by this ruthless, incompetent, dangerous party.
They think the Tories were out of the game for a long time? They ain't seen nuthin' yet!