The Government of the People

Its the Queens Speech today, the priorities and bills that the government want to push through this new parliamentary period which was opened today.

Some of the key things for the people.

The fixed parliament act is to be scrapped, meaning instead of a fixed 5 years, the government can call an election without 2/3 commons majority at the point it is strongest and most likely to retain or increase power.

The voting system for Mayoral elections is to be scrapped from preference to first past the post. Labour did very well in the mayoral elections under the preference system.

Judicial reviews are to be watered down, making it harder for anyone to seek a judicial review and have a mechanism for holding the government to account when it breaks the law.

Electoral fraud "prevention". Because there is so much fraud at elections (even though the Electoral Commission say there isn't), the Government of the people is to ask its subjects to prove their identity before voting. In 2015, the Electoral Commission outlined that such a change would mean circa 3.5 million adults would be unable to vote, the poorest in society. It's assumed a large majority of these people have traditionally voted against the conservative party.

A Peoples Government.

 

I'm past being surprised, I'm past disappointed, I'm now in the "yeah, that sounds Tory and then do an exaggerated shoulder shrug" phase.

 

Not sure I'd even describe them as tory. More a UKIP dictatorship.

Starmer, Davy, Sturgeon and Lucas have to find a way to form an alliance to get a chance of getting them out.

 

I'm a celebrity - get me out of here. Britain is s hit.

 

I don't think Starmer has it within him to form an alliance with anyone, can't even get along with his own party.

 

This is the only realistic way of changing government and they need to wake up to it. A coalition of the decent minded.

The Queen's speech is just the beginning, we no longer live in a functioning and practicing democracy.
Big money, big tech and a media unwilling and unable to challenge those in power have destroyed this country.

They wave flags and talk in a way reminiscent of the 1940s. Yet on close inspection, these are the kinds of people we fought against back then.

 

That paragraph is pure gold.

 

Don't go giving David Cameron further ideas on getting his hands on tax payers money. He'll be putting in for a 100 million grant to copyright his walk, The Greedy Pig F*cking Etonian **** Trot.

 

I find the term ‘Government of the People’ sinister and personally very upsetting.

If this is the ‘Government of the People,’ it follows that anyone who raises any opposition can be called ‘The Enemy of the People - a phrase already used during the Brexit campaign by the Daily Mail.

Stalin used this phrase to label and remove any real or imagined opposition. My own family were among them. In 1940 they were charged with being ‘enemies of the people’ (some were just children) rounded up like cattle and transported to the gulag where they died.

Make no mistake this term is being used intentionally. This is the mindset they want to encourage and God knows what the outcome will be.

 

Having to use ID to vote would effectively disenfranchise me - I am usually travelling home on Thursdays (in normal times) and can arrive at any time between 9pm and 3am depending on weather and the train system. Last thing you want to do after traveling is to go straight back out to vote. So I use a postal vote and can vote at my convenience before election day, which wouldn't then have the ID card requirement...

A lot of pensioners are also reliant on the postal vote, so if they change the postal vote they are likely to *lose* a big chunk of their vote.

 

Clearly the Tories have seen how Trump and the Republicans have successfully undermined democracy and been passing sweeping voting law changes in Republican states to disenfranchise Democrat voters and now want to try their hand at it.

 

There is no way this government is going to do something that loses votes. There must be some plan for proving who you are with a postal ballot, like you say, they won't want to risk losing their die hard older voters.

If they can get this through and there isn't significant protest, I think this country is well and truly done.

 

As someone who was working on the election last week, one of the cornerstones of our electoral system is trust. I ask a person his/her name, if they are on the electoral register, they are entitled to vote.

Electoral fraud is almost non-existent.

Bojo the Clown is a fraud.

 

Just a couple of points, I'm not sure what's proposed for judicial review, but tbh currently only millionaires can use it...I was part of a group who wanted a judicial review on a section of the HS2 route, we were told that a group couldn't do it, it had to be one person's name on the documents, that they would need a minimum of £150k and that they would personally be responsible for costs.
On the question of election fraud, one thing that is currently not illegal but should be in my view is the opening of postal votes prior to polling day.
As the system currently stands, the postal ballot papers go out around the 18th or 19th of April, three or four days later completed papers start landing in the Council's mailbox....and are opened by Council staff in the presence of nominated members of the various political parties giving them a distinct preview of how a particular Ward or Constituency is going....this allows them advance knowledge of where they need to campaign harder in the next two and half weeks to polling day...you could say it's the same for everyone, but in reality only the two main parties have the resources to have people watching all day and every day. As it stands it's not a level playing field, the postal votes should ideally be opened on the same day as the ballot boxes, although a day or two before would probably not make too much difference.

 

I didn't know you had Russian connections. I'd be interested to know more, if you don't mind of course.

 

My father in law used to manage the count in Maidstone and he said they weren't allowed to count postal ballots until the full count was allowed to commence. It could well have changed as the share of postal votes has likely increased, but the last time he ran it was what, 2015, so not that long ago. I also thought there was an issue at the last GE where Laura K said she'd seen postal ballots which was widely classed to be a breach if not highly unethical. But agree that parties should not know what the accumulating results are until they are announced officially.

The tories can outspend any party by a distance, so such a thing only benefits them in the main.

As for judicial review. Cost is obviously a factor. But there have been groups club together (even if there is a lead person named) and QCs assist gratis depending on the cause. But it's a big difference in cost being a factor and a government simply blocking you.

 

Postal votes shouldnt be opened and should make their way to the counting stations like any other vote. Amd only opened at the time the count starts

 

Polish. My family lived in a village in Eastern Poland. When the Soviets invaded Poland in 1939 they were among the million or so deported to Siberia for the crime of being Polish. This isn’t known about in the west or acknowledged in Russian history. It happened of course - although if my father who was 14 hadn’t got away that morning, I wouldn’t be here writing this.

 

Your FinL is correct that Officers don't count the votes, but the nominated party observers do count , it's not an exact science but after a few hours it can often be clear who is winning and undoubtedly it favours the big parties, in S Yorks it gives Labour a distinct advantage as they can muster the numbers, in Berkshire perhaps the situation will be reversed, but the Greens, or a small Community Party will be disadvantaged, as the national parties can muster more observers than the smaller opposition probably has for total membership.
Opening shortly before the actual count removes any advantages.