Laban's Election Choice

I know you've all been waiting for some Labanic pearls of wisdom on the election. I confess that never have I felt less energised, never less impressed with all the Prime Ministerial candidates, from Young Nick, with his radical plans to abolish my daughter's Catholic comprehensive, let all the illegal immigrants stay (and bring their families in) and let all the burglars out, through the Heir To Blair, whose few discernable policies seem none too well thought out, down to the Son of the Manse, or the Manse Who Saved The World.

Nonetheless it is my duty to find a path through these sorry facts, winding and weary though that path be, and come to a conclusion and recommendation.

After much thought, I can announce that I will be voting Labour on Thursday.














And so will the other 56 people in my house.

The number registered to vote at the home of Khales Uddin Ahmed, running to be a councillor in Tower Hamlets, has risen from five to twelve in recent weeks. But a neighbour said that only three people live in the maisonette on a council estate in Bromley-by-Bow.

It is one of several cases where new names have been suddenly added to the voting register as living at addresses occupied by Labour candidates in the borough, which has a history of allegations of voting irregularities.

A last-minute surge of electoral registrations in the borough means that 5,000 have gone through without any checks.

When approached by The Times yesterday, Mr Ahmed, a restaurateur, locked himself behind his door and insisted that all the other occupants were out. “You are discriminating our family,” he said. “I am not going to give you any information.” He declined to say how many bedrooms he had. Round the corner, in a house where a mother and daughter, both Labour councillors, live, three people have recently been added to the voting register, bringing the total to eight.

Rania Khan said that the new names at the four-bedroom house were her husband and two nurses they had taken in as lodgers. “That’s showing the need of the people of Tower Hamlets with the overcrowding situation,” she said.

At a maisonette in Poplar, where a Labour councillor, her husband and four children live, three new adults have been recently added to the roll. When The Times asked to speak to the newcomers, Shiria Khatun, who is standing in the elections, slammed the door. Her husband shouted: “Get out from here, bloody bastard.” Ms Khatun later said by telephone that the new residents were two nieces and a nephew who were sleeping on a sofa and the floor.

Your Postal Vote Frauds Tonight ....

When the local Respect councillor in Sparkbrook went bankrupt (actually got nailed for not paying his tax or NI) , Labour were hoping to retake the seat. Respect kept it.

And, in the time-honoured tradition of Bordesley Green, Aston etc,we have allegations of massive vote fraud.

Police are investigating the worst outbreak of voter fraud at a Birmingham City Council election for five years (i.e. since the previous council elections in the area - LT).

Almost 400 postal votes cast at Thursday’s Sparkbrook ward by-election – a third of the total issued – were rejected as likely forgeries.

Council officials, backed by the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties, called in the police after saying they suspected an organised plot to influence the result of the by-election, which was won by Respect candidate Shokat Ali.

In 2004, Birmingham was likened to a “banana republic” by Elections Commissioner Richard Mawrey QC, who investigated hundreds of forged ballot papers at that year’s city council elections.

Birmingham Labour leader Sir Albert Bore said those behind the alleged fraud at Sparkbrook had attempted to destroy the electoral process.

Sir Albert added: “Nearly 400 postal vote ballot papers were rejected because of inconsistencies in either the date of birth or the signature of the elector.

“It is appalling that even after a number of very public concerns and enquires into postal vote fraud, the election process in Sparkbrook has been undermined by individuals who have, in a number of ways, attempted to submit postal vote ballot papers of electors other than themselves.

“The fact that around 30 per cent of all postal votes cast – and there were almost 1,800 postal votes cast in this by-election – were rejected clearly illustrates the magnitude of the fraud being perpetuated.

“Birmingham’s reputation for honesty and integrity at election times has again been undermined.”

But it hasn't got such a reputation. It's got a reputation for fraud and dishonesty that would disgrace a banana republic - or in Brum's case, a kuthlama republic..

Be interesting to see who the fraud was in favour of. My money's on Labour, although they've pretty much all - except Respect - got previous. Grudging but sincere credit to Respect, who are actually against postal voting.

A Few Daisies From The Curate's Lawn

Boom Bang-A-Bang (again) - in my post about the UK exploding community I mentioned the apparent use by the 7/7 bombers of boiled-down hydrogen peroxide as an oxidant in their bombs.

Those clever chaps at Blood and Treasure (who share my low opinions of the NWOBJ) actually did some experimental work to see if it were true. I think the verdict is 'not proven'.

Via them, a chap called George Smith who also asks if things are true. An interesting blog - a kind of Yankee Alex Harrowell.

True New Labour values. Former Scottish first minister Jack McConnell looks back over ten years of devolution to its crowning glory.

Jack McConnell rates the smoking ban as the crowning achievement of the Scottish parliament, which marks the 10th anniversary of its first meeting this month ... McConnell said: "I was so proud. I was proud of my country, proud of the people and proud of the parliament. It was a defining moment in that first 10 years."

You do have to worry about the mental state of a man who considers a smoking ban the finest achievement of ten years of government. Was it for this that Keir Hardie and the Red Clydesiders fought - for the right of a publican to go to jail if drinkers light up in a Scots pub ?


More New Labour snouts in the trough.

A Labour peer who lives in the East End of London has claimed about £100,000 in parliamentary expenses on a flat in Kent that neighbours say has been unoccupied for years.

Baroness Uddin, who worked closely with Tony and Cherie Blair, has been claiming allowances intended for peers living outside London although she resides only four miles from the Lords.

Inquiries by The Sunday Times have established that the baroness bought a two-bedroom flat in Maidstone in 2005 and has named it as her main home to claim almost £30,000 a year in accommodation expenses from the House of Lords.

Residents from the five other flats in the same block as Uddin’s property all say they have never seen her there. They could see through the windows that the bedrooms were unfurnished.

Ms Uddin seems an archetype NuLab figure :

Born in Bangladesh, Manzila Pola Uddin came to Britain as a teenager and went on to become a community worker and social services officer while pursuing a political career that saw her rise to be deputy leader of Tower Hamlets borough council in the early 1990s.

She was made a peer by Tony Blair in 1998 and took the title “Baroness Uddin of Bethnal Green in our London Borough of Tower Hamlets”. Aged 38, she was the youngest woman in the Lords.

As a campaigner on women’s and ethnic minority issues she has become part of the new Labour establishment, befriending Cherie Blair. Her Facebook friends include the cabinet ministers Harriet Harman, Hazel Blears and David Miliband and Alastair Campbell, the former spin doctor.

More vote fraud :

Raja Khan, 52, of Oban Court, Montem Lane, was jailed for three and a half years after admitting conspiracy to defraud the returning officer and perjury. He has since been expelled from the Conservative Party. Gul Nawaz Khan, 58, of Richmond Crescent, pleaded guilty to perjury and was jailed for eight months. Mohammed Basharat Khan, 46, of Mirador Crescent, admitted conspiracy to defraud the returning officer and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. He was jailed for three years and four months. Arshad Raja, 53, of Broadmark Road, was found guilty of conspiracy to defraud the returning officer. He was given an 18-month prison sentence.

Now the sentences are good, even when you halve them and knock off 18 days. It's the kind of thing that will encourage the others - for a time, at least. According to "the electoral commission" there was less fraud in the 2008 elections - full report here.

Via Cranmer, an interesting paper on the success of the homosexual activist group Stonewall.

And finally, the American lefty singer, activist and songwriter Pete Seeger is ninety years old. While he should IMHO face a musical tribunal for popularising Kumbayah, against this must be set a number of services to music, including his fine tune to the poetry of Idris Davies. More jangly Sixties guitars, electric this time. I know they can't pronounce the name right, and there's a total disconnect between Depression South Wales and a bunch of amiable middle-class American stoners, but the Byrds do a lovely job on Bells of Rhymney.

Listen.

Frozen Washing on the Curate's Line

The Martyrdom of St Yazza :

"tell me you aren't ashamed at what our country has become when a middle aged muslim woman of Asian descent can be treated like this. She was questioned at length by plain clothes police officers who never once told her who they were or why she was being questioned."

I listened to the video, most of which was a moan about how "I love this country but ...", then we got to the facts. She was taking an internal flight, there was a mix-up and her tickets weren't kosher for the flight she was trying to board, so she was taken aside and asked a few questions. No abuse, no threats, no shouting.

I had a similar interview leaving Heathrow for NY on Pan-Am, a year after Lockerbie. I'm presuming the Libyan visa in my passport was the catalyst. They were perfectly polite, I answered their (reasonable) questions and away I went.

This really is a tsumami in some Earl Grey - and Iain Dale, what's all this about "we should be ashamed" ? Are you arguing that middle-aged, middle class Muslim women should be exempt from the (tedious but probably necessary) airline security checks the rest of us go through ?

I love Yazza like I love Melanie Phillips, but both can on occasions see "oppression" when it's not there.

There's enough of the real thing about without nonsense like this.

What a strange way to spin a story.

The UK’s official statistician weighed into the debate about foreign workers yesterday by highlighting the growing numbers of immigrants getting jobs while the British workforce declines.

On the day that figures showed the number of people unemployed at a 12-year high, the Office for National Statistics chose to reveal that the number of foreign workers increased by 175,000 to 2.4 million last year while the number of British workers fell by 234,000 to 27 million.

Karen Dunnell, the National Statistician, sought to focus public attention on the contrasting fortunes of foreign and British workers as the country slipped into recession. Her intervention came as construction workers took part in wildcat strikes at power stations in Nottinghamshire and Kent, angry about jobs going to foreigners.

I see. The figures aren't the important thing, it's that they were released. Que ? I think FWIW that it's 'deeply unhelpful' to characterise telling the truth as a move in some political game. Obviously that's the way Sam Coates, Richard Ford and David Brown see it.


There is no end to Labour sleaze.

LORD TRUSCOTT, one of four peers named in the “lords for hire” scandal, has taken at least £70,000 in allowances for overnight accommodation in London while staying at his home in the capital.

Truscott, 49, now receives £28,000-a-year tax free by telling House of Lords’ authorities that his main residence is a modest flat in Bath, Somerset.

He uses the allowance to maintain a £700,000 flat he owns in Mayfair, central London, with his Russian wife, Svetlana. He bought the property in Bath months after becoming eligible to claim the allowance.

Lord Paul of Marylebone, the billionaire steel magnate and Labour donor who is nondomiciled, is one of a number of other peers who take advantage of the perk.

The deafening silence on the issue at PMQs yesterday seems to be confirmation that they're all at it.

THE financier who has been appointed to protect taxpayers’ money in Britain’s bailed-out banks is a former trustee of a secretive Liechtenstein bank accused of facilitating massive tax evasion.

Glen Moreno, who chairs the powerful body that oversees the government’s £37 billion shareholding in the banks, was paid hundreds of thousands of pounds during a nine-year association with Liechtenstein Global Trust (LGT), a private bank based in the tax haven.

The disclosures are an embarrassment for Gordon Brown, who last week criticised offshore tax havens and called for international action to stamp out tax evasion.

What with James Crosby, Gordon seems to be an expert at hiring foxes as poultry management consultants. But it's this that really bothers me :

The SNP has demanded an inquiry after it emerged that a record of everyone who voted in last year's contest in Glenrothes has gone missing.

All of the major parties, including Labour on election night itself, had predicted that the Nationalists would win the seat, which borders Gordon's Brown's constituency.

Instead Lindsay Roy, Labour's candidate, swept to victory and dealt a stunning blow to Alex Salmond, the First Minister and SNP leader, who had confidently predicted victory.

The result was a huge fillip to the Prime Minister, who broke with convention and risked his political credibility by joining the campaign trail with his wife, Sarah.

Thus far UK electoral fraud has been confined to Ulster Republicans and other minority communities with a tradition of same, although I wouldn't put it past some well-meaning liberal types to lose a few boxes of BNP votes and think they were protecting democracy - after all, we've all been taught what happened in Germany. The worst the Labour leadership (as opposed to their local party machines) have done is to turn a blind eye. This would be different, and a very worrrying sign for our democracy. I hope and pray that Mr Cock-up is responsible here - but it's not good that we can even entertain the idea of Scottish Labour taking the Mugabe route to electoral success. Not so long ago it would have been unthinkable. It isn't now.


Oh, forgot to say. Remember the liberal myth of Superbowl violence, which inspired our PC police into campaigns against World Cup Domestic Violence ?

Meet the rugby equivalent - Six Nations Domestic Violence 2008. And Rugby World Cup 2007.

Police are launching patrols in the south Wales valleys during the Rugby World Cup to allow them to respond quickly to domestic violence.

Reality trumps satire yet again.

BNP Brouhaha

Laban, way back :

"as long as demographic change on this scale continues, banning the BNP from Facebook, harassing and sacking its activists, "duffing them up in the street" (copyright B.Bragg) are in the long run not going to make a difference.

The BNP may have many idiotic ideas. They may also have some very nasty ones at the heart of their ideology and among their senior people.

But that isn't why people are voting for them. The native Brits haven't suddenly become swivel-eyed types with obsessions about black IQ, Jewish conspiracies and the other things that make a BNP ideologues eyes light up. The English don't do fascism. They just don't want to be a minority in their own country."

And again :

"a big heave this election might keep the BNP vote down. But the effort needed will be higher each time as the tide rises."

Well, the effort gets higher. Yesterday's news that the entire BNP membership - names, addresses, phones, email - was out there on the internet, along with news that mass immigration continues at historically unprecedented levels, marks a new escalation. It's likely to be very damaging - no-one likes receiving threats, the witch-hunts and sackings have begun, chaps are piteously pleading their innocence of the grave charge of belonging to a legal political party. Early 50s America, or seventeenth century Salem ?

Generally I am a firm believer in Mr Cock-up rather than Mr Conspiracy. But the thesis put forward by Nick Griffin yesterday - that the list was released by a senior ex-member who thought the party were too moderate - seems unlikely. I'm not a guru of BNP internal politics, but I thought last years split was over tactics and personalities rather than strategy.

No, this looks like Labour really are crapping themselves as the economic crisis deepens (seen bank shares this week ? the sector's dropped 20% in three days), the country feels more and more Weimar-ish, and the Govt, having long given up on enforcing existing laws, are passing new ones criminalising men who pay prostitutes. I thought it was not paying them that was the crime.

I'd say State involvement is as likely as not. You would tend to assume that MI5 have someone at a senior-ish level in the party - after all, the late Julia Pirie, PA to the general secretary of the Communist Party, was a State agent. I take it as a matter of course that every visit and email to the BNP site is logged.

But it's a sign of desperation. As I said, the effort needed gets more each time. After this there's only really one escalation left, short of making the party illegal.

As you know, the secret ballot isn't in fact terribly secret. Each voting slip has a number, the number of your slip is noted as your name's ticked off on the register and it's handed to you - it would not be beyond the wit of our rulers (with a major track record on vote fraud) to organise a reconciliation. What happens, I wonder, to the voting slips and polling station returns after the count ? Anyone know ?

If, as I think quite likely, the BNP get Euro seats next May, the only list left to publish will be that of their voters.

Your (Alleged) Vote Frauds Tonight

The two-knocked-into-one terrace with 24 bedrooms and 27 registered voters.

A would-be MP is being investigated by police after it emerged 27 people are registered to vote at his house. And officers are also probing claims a prospective councillor has five people registered at his home who are also listed at other properties in the same town. Both Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Mohammed Afzal Anwar and Labour Pendle Council candidate Mohammed Tariq have insisted they have done nothing wrong.

Police launched their investigation after separate allegations were made to Pendle Council and Lancashire Constabulary by the Liberal Democrat and Labour parties in Pendle.

Mr Anwar said there was nothing untoward about the number of voters living at his terraced home which is 214 to 216 Manchester Road, Nelson, and consists of two houses knocked into one. He said that 27 people were registered to vote at the property, but that not all were resident in this country at any one time. Mr Anwar said no postal or proxy votes would be requested for the property. He said that he had discussed the situation with election officials at Pendle Council.

Mr Anwar said: "There are different people who are living in different parts of the properties. There are certain people who go abroad from time to time. One or two are students who have been in Poland for example. And other people are going (abroad) and coming back. There will be no postal or proxy votes issued from this address."

His election agent, Coun Tony Greaves, said the property was inhabited by Mr Anwar, his father, three brothers, their respective families and "contains 24 bedrooms."

Only two people registered at the addresses, who were currently resident in Pakistan, were not entitled to vote, said Coun Greaves. Labour party officials asked Pendle police to launch a probe amid claims that not all residents living there should be entitled to vote.

The claims followed Liberal Democrat allegations over Labour candidate Mohammed Tariq, who is standing in Whitefield ward in next month's Pendle Council elections.
He is accused of having five people registered at his Portland Street home who are also registered at other properties elsewhere in Nelson. Pendle Labour group leader Mohammed Iqbal is Mr Tariq's election agent and said the prospective councillor had done nothing wrong. He said: "I have looked into Lord Greaves's allegations concerning Mr Tariq. They seem to centre round two members of our candidate's family." Police confirmed that they were investigating allegations of electoral fraud in Pendle.

Yet More Vote Fraud

From (where else ?) Brum (again).

When Ayoub Khan said in 2004 "this is the politics of Pakistan or Bangladesh and they've brought it here" I thought he was just (just ?) talking about fraud. I should have taken him at his word.

A Liberal Democrat activist had his £50,000 Range Rover set on fire during a bitter fight to oust a Labour councillor, an election court was told yesterday. The activist, Iftikhar Ahmed, was a key supporter of Saeed Aehmed, who was defeated in the council elections in Birmingham in May when he stood against the Labour candidate Muhammad Afzal.

Mr Aehmed is challenging Mr Afzal’s victory and claims that he was the victim of a smear campaign, in which voters were told wrongly that he had been arrested for fraud. Mr Afzal was also accused of trying to use family pressure to stop a witness giving evidence in court.

Mr Afzal, a former chairman of the National Association of Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority Councillors and a Birmingham councillor since 1982, had his reelection to the council in 2004 overturned because of widespread corruption. Richard Mawrey, QC, then election commissioner, had accused Labour of organising city-wide postal vote fraud “that would disgrace a banana republic” to win the election, in spite of Muslim anger over the invasion of Iraq. Mr Afzal was later cleared by the Court of Appeal of personal responsibility for corrupt and illegal practices.

Mr Brodie said that on this year’s election day,Mr Afzal’s supporters told voters that the Lib Dem candidate had been arrested for fraud. Loudspeakers on cars in Aston blared out the rumour in Urdu and Bengali.

Mr Afzal, who is regarded as the most powerful man in Birmingham Asian politics, sits on the council’s overview and scrutiny committee. His victory this May came in spite of a sharp swing against Labour in the city when the party was overtaken as Birmingham’s largest by the Conservatives for the first time in 24 years.

Labour had five cars with loudspeakers and were trailing the sole Liberal Democrat car broadcasting: “Lib Dems arrested, Lib Dems arrested.”

Respect - La Lotta Continua

At Harry's Place coverage continues of the acrimonious divorce between the faction with the votes (Galloway and his British Muslim contituency) and the faction with the organisation (SWP). I see the SWP have the membership lists and computer passwords.

The Guardian and BBC have given minimal coverage to this. I guess at the Graun they're circling the wagons to avoid giving joy and comfort to people like me.

Swansea West Labour Party

From icWales

Concern at level of faith support for would-be MP

Jun 12 2007

by Martin Shipton, Western Mail


The selection of a new Labour candidate in a safe parliamentary seat has become embroiled in controversy after an influx of new members from the local Pakistani and Bangladeshi communities. At the next general election, Alan Williams will be standing down from the Swansea West seat he has held since 1964. A selection process to choose Mr Williams’s successor is under way, and a new candidate will be picked next month by local party members.

Among the contenders for the nomination is Dr Parvaiz Ali, who for the past 15 months has chaired Swansea West Constituency Labour Party (CLP). Some local party members say they have become uneasy about the large number of individuals of Pakistani or Bangladeshi origin who have joined the CLP since Dr Ali took over as chairman. They suspect the new members have been recruited in a bid to secure the candidacy for Dr Ali. Dr Ali, who last month was an Assembly regional list candidate in Mid and West Wales, is head of nuclear medicine at Swansea NHS Trust. He says he has simply made a bid to recruit more members in recent months.

The Western Mail has had sight of documentation relating to the membership of Swansea West CLP. It suggests that before May of last year there were only around 10 members of the CLP with names indicating they had origins in Pakistan or Bangladesh. Since then a further 135 people with names associated with the two countries have joined the CLP, with almost 100 of them becoming members in the last three months of 2006. Meanwhile, since the beginning of 2006, only about 20 people unconnected to the two Asian countries have joined the CLP. About a third of the membership of Swansea West CLP now have origins in Pakistan or Bangladesh. By contrast, the ethnic minority population of Swansea is less than 3% of the total. Approximately 45 of the new Pakistani and Bangladeshi members do not appear on the electoral register in the constituency.

Naz Malik, a member of Swansea West CLP who is also director of Awema (the All Wales Ethnic Minority Association), said, “It seems to me that what has been happening is a blatant attempt at opportunism by playing the numbers game. I am, of course, very much in favour of people from whatever origin joining political parties. But the timing of this particular recruitment drive, and the fact that the vast majority of the new recruits are from two relatively small communities, suggests a conscious effort to target particular groups. If there is a desire to bring in more members from the ethnic minorities, why have none been recruited from Swansea’s Chinese or Filipino communities? It is most unfortunate that the vast majority of the new recruits are of the same faith as Dr Ali rather than from a mixture of groups. I think it is very regrettable that the Labour Party has done so little to address the under-representation of ethnic minorities in Parliament and at the National Assembly. This kind of mass recruitment by a candidate seeking selection is the consequence of that, I fear.”

Mr Malik said he was also concerned that a significant number of the new members did not appear on the electoral register. “That seems to me to raise questions about whether the individuals are entitled to membership of the local branches,” he said.

Dr Ali said, “When I took over as chair of the CLP 15 months ago, I made it clear that I would be seeking to recruit a lot of new members. I want to see as many people as possible in the Labour Party. I don’t care what background people have – I want to recruit anybody and everybody. If you lived in Swansea West, I would be seeking to recruit you. It is entirely up to members of the party who they vote for in the selection contest.” Asked about the new members who were not on the electoral register, he said, “That is not an issue. They can easily get on the register.”

A Labour Party spokesman said, “Welsh Labour welcomes new members from all communities in Wales. Being a member of the Labour Party is a valuable and worthwhile thing to do for people who care about the future of their country and communities. All members eligible to take part in the process will find it open, transparent and fair, with an opportunity to have their say on who represents them as the Labour candidate in the next general election.” It is understood that more than half the new members will be disqualified from voting because of a party decision to hold an early selection meeting.


Hmmm. I think the wise words of Ayoub Khan apply here.

The BBC discover Brum Vote Fraud

Three years late. At Biased BBC.

Immigration figures 'are false'

Observer

Councils are so concerned that official figures are failing to record the true number of migrants entering their area that they are to start their own polling to gauge the scale of the influx.

This is a serious embarrassment to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) which has tried to play down concerns that its estimates for the number of people entering the UK are badly flawed.

Although the office plans to improve its methods for tracking immigration, critics say the new way of counting migrants was equally problematic. The critics point out that, under the new calculations, the number entering London supposedly decreased by 60,000 between 2002 and 2005 - the most up-to-date records available - though most experts say they actually increased. Councils in and around the capital claim the rise in immigrants is placing greater pressure on services and is starting to have an impact on their finances.

Don't get the impression that any of these councils are actually concerned about social cohesion or nonsense like that. The problem is that they want more funding to service the needs of these migrants. Strange - I thought only the swivel-eyed brigade worried about the burden on public services.

'Our electoral register has gone up by 23,000 over the past few years yet they're saying it's gone down,' said Sir Robin Wales, mayor of Newham, east London. 'It's ludicrous. We've nothing against migration - it is great for the economy and great for Newham. However, it needs to be properly funded. We would be willing to pay for a census just to rectify these figures. It would cost us a lot of money, but these inaccurate figures are costing us even more.'

23,000 extra voters on the electoral register, eh ? Are they all entitled to vote ?

The ONS estimates that Slough has received 1,100 extra migrants since 2002. But the local council estimates that at least 10,000 Polish people alone have arrived to work in the town since 2004.

Critics say the office's figures are also at odds with those collated by the government. Migration figures released by the ONS earlier this month suggested that approximately 56,000 Poles entered the UK in 2005, although the Department for Work and Pensions has issued figures suggesting that over 170,000 Polish citizens applied for National Insurance numbers in the same year.

'The government's new figures suggest we have fewer migrants than three years ago,' said Councillor Mark Loveday, cabinet member for strategy at Hammersmith and Fulham council. National Insurance registrations by people from countries which recently joined the European Union 'are up by more than 550 per cent and that's before other migrants are counted'.

More Vote Fraud

Yes, it's that time again, with your hosts Leeds Labour Councillors Keith Wakefield and Graham Hyde.

Isn't it amazing ? There's a story about them in the Sunday Times.

Wakefield and Hyde then delivered their briefing. "Simply, what I want you to do is to knock on the door, say you are from the Labour party," instructed Hyde.

"Have you received your postal vote?" he told the students to ask voters. "Have you returned it? If they give it to you in your hand, you collect it and put it in the post box. If they haven’t, you say, ‘Have you got your postal vote?’" Wakefield chipped in: "You’ve got to do it for them."

Hyde then said: "And if you are knocking on the door and they have a postal vote and they haven’t done it, ‘Would you like to do it? We’ll put it in the post.’ We also want to check they are voting Labour as well. Yeah? If they are voting Liberal Dem, then don’t offer to put the postal vote in. We’ve found 10 so far out of all those we’ve done in Gipton."

One of the students then said: "Yes, I’ll post that for you." Hyde laughed and added: "Yes, that’s it, and then it ends up in the toilet."

By a remarkable coincidence, you can't access the details for either Messrs Wakefield or Hyde on the Leeds City Council website. Only Google cache is still there.

The ST also has an editorial.

All three main parties, meanwhile, have signed up to the Electoral Commission’s code of conduct. This means candidates and canvassers will not handle or help voters complete their postal ballot papers, that they encourage voters to post ballot papers themselves and if asked to take a completed ballot paper, to make sure the voter has sealed it first. They must also ensure voters complete ballot papers in secret, and not solicit completed postal ballot papers from electors.

Today we report that the Labour party in Leeds has driven an articulated lorry through this code in a desperate attempt to gain power on the city council. An undercover reporter posing as a student activist was part of a team told by the leader of the Labour group on the council, Keith Wakefield, and a fellow Labour politician, to collect postal votes in two key wards, and if necessary "help" voters fill in the forms. The other councillor, Graham Hyde, who worked in the Commons for George Mudie, the former Labour deputy chief whip, warned the canvassers not to get caught with any postal voting forms on them.

Every aspect of the code, in other words, was breached. As David Crompton, assistant chief constable of West Yorkshire, put it when told of Labour’s actions: "This is extremely sharp practice and a clear breach of the guidelines. We will now be looking at this carefully to determine whether a crime has been committed." Whatever the police do, the Labour party should suspend the councillors involved.

I have an old-fashioned cliche in my mind's eye - of idealistic middle-class types making sacrifices to help the working class. Last week's Indie piece on core Labour demography should dispel any illusions that Labour are in any sense a working class party.

She was among a group of 12 students, mostly studying English, politics and history, who were then driven to the car park of the Fairway pub in Gipton.

The area (Gipton), in eastern Leeds, is one of the rougher suburbs, made up largely of council tower blocks and sprawling estates. Gangs of youths hang around on street corners and the unemployment rate is high.

The suburb, whose residents are typically white working-class or poor Asian families, was until recently solidly Labour.

We're seeing middle-class people making sacrifices to defraud the working class. Thus far have we come since Peterloo and the Chartists.

Richard Price QC, an expert on electoral law, said: "I look at the situation as like a large bowl of water. Previously there were a couple of holes in it — isolated cases of fraud — but suddenly it has become a colander. It is a completely unnecessary crisis. With postal voting you have abolished the secret ballot, and your investigation is a classic example of this."

Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, an academic expert on elections, added: "Postal voting on demand is inherently unsatisfactory. The whole system is open to abuse. Secret ballots were introduced in 1872 to stop exactly this sort of problem and we now seem to be going back to the 19th century."

Sir Alistair Graham, who stood down as chairman of the committee on standards in public life last week, recently accused ministers of being in denial about the "real and potent threat" facing the electoral system as a result of fraud. He warned that the government could not ensure the forthcoming local elections would be free, fair or secure.

Yet More Demographics

David Conway of Civitas disses the 'nation of immigrants' thesis. Looks like the 2001 forecast that natives would be a minority by 2100 are well out of date, and 2073 is the new date. Well inside my children's lifetime. Of course, the tipping point - when the number of native babies is less than the number of non-native - will be before that.

Labour remains committed to the view that immigration is good for the country, and the more there is, the better it will be. What is the evidence for that remarkable proposition? If you ask most ministers, they will tell you "Britain has always been a nation of immigrants". That claim is false. The evidence which refutes it is not very complicated: it consists simply in looking at the numbers.

Between 1066 and 1945 Britain actually had very few waves of immigration. By far the largest was the Irish during the 19th century and, technically, they were not immigrants, since Ireland was part of the United Kingdom. Furthermore, Irish "immigrants" never amounted to more than 3 per cent of the British population.

Numerically, the next largest group is the Jews. Official statistics record that 155,811 Jews from Russia and Eastern Europe arrived over 25 years from 1880. Their contribution to the intellectual, political and economic life of Britain has of course been enormous. But even adding the 70,000 who fled to Britain from Nazi Germany, the number of Jewish arrivals was, compared to the 50 million Britons already resident here, minute. They are certainly not enough to make Britain "a nation of immigrants".

Almost all immigrant groups never managed to reach 1 per cent of the population. The Normans, though they seized land and power, were a tiny elite. The Dutch who arrived in the 16th century were, in proportion to the whole population, a much smaller group. Even the 50,000 Huguenots from France only ever amounted to a hundredth of Britain's total population. And they arrived over a period of 50 years.

Immigration today adds 1 per cent to Britain's population every two years, or more than 5 per cent every decade. Official statistics which reveal that, in 2004 and 2005, net migration into Britain was running at around 300,000 people every year. And that number does not include the tens of thousands who arrive illegally, or who claim asylum, have their asylum claims rejected, but who are never deported.

Again and again you hear it repeated that the present levels of immigration are "nothing new", "nothing exceptional" and are in line with the proportions of immigrants who have, "throughout our history", come into Britain. The facts refute that claim so completely that I doubt any minister still believes it.

Labour, for reasons it has never fully articulated, decided in 1997 to dismantle practically all controls on immigration. The amount of immigration we have seen over the past decade has no parallel in British history. International migration into Britain now contributes around 80 per cent of Britain's annual population increase, and has done so since 1999.

In 1950, Britain's ethnic population amounted to just over 1 per cent of the total. By 2001, that figure was 8 per cent. On present trends, by 2073, the majority population of this country will either have migrated here, or be the child or grandchild of parents who did so. No past wave of immigration has ever come anywhere near having that kind of consequence.

More cheerful news. Look what the increasing number of women in higher education can do.

A third of women graduates will never have children, research has concluded. The number of highly educated women who are starting families has plummeted in the past decade, according to findings that provide the most detailed insight yet into education and fertility. While some women are making a conscious decision not to have children, others are simply leaving it too late after taking years to build their careers, buy a home and find the right partner. Graduates who do become mothers are having fewer children, and later.

If the low birth rate trend continues, then the eventual rate of childlessness among graduates now aged in their twenties is likely to be even higher than a third. The findings come from a ground-breaking study into more than 5,000 women born in 1970 and tracked throughout their lives by researchers at the Centre for Longitudinal Studies, based at the Institute of Education in London.

It revealed that 40 per cent of the graduate women were childless at age 35. The researchers forecast that by the time they reach the likely end of their child-bearing years at 45, about 30 per cent will still be childless. Of a panel of older graduate women born in 1958, only 32.7 per cent were childless at 35.

The results help to explain the low birth rate which is leading to an ageing population in Britain and much of western Europe. Overall population decline is only being prevented by immigration and a higher birth rate among non-graduate women.


Meanwhile, as incomers arrive, the natives get out. Telegraph 1

More British people are leaving this country than before the First World War. Yesterday's figures from the Office for National Statistics confirm what has been apparent for years: we are in the midst of the biggest inflow of migrants in history.

Until recently, Britain was a country of net emigration, not of immigration. During the period of Empire, people left in their droves to live and work in the colonies.
But in the past 10 years, that has changed. People are still leaving but they are not coming back, or at least not as often as they did.

Meanwhile, there are more immigrants who are coming to stay for good. Emigration is now on the rise once more, with 207,000 British nationals leaving the country in 2004. This was the highest number since before the Great War, when more young men were leaving the country every year than died on the battlefields of Europe. While more foreign nationals are coming here and staying on, at the same time more British nationals are leaving.

Without this immigration, given the negative birth rate of indigenous people, the population would be declining. Cumulatively since 1997, 1.6 million British nationals have left the country and 806,000 have returned. At the same time, 2.93 million foreign nationals have arrived and 1.41 million have left. So, for every two Brits that leave, one returns; but for every two foreign nationals that arrive, only one leaves.

The ONS stats are here, if you have lots of time and are a spreadsheet wizard.

Telegraph 2 - more analysis

Overall immigration has been steadily rising since the 1990s and is now at unprecedented levels, but there has been a big change in the nationality of incomers, many of whom used to be British citizens returning after working abroad. The ONS said: ''There has been a noticeable upward trend of out-migration in recent years. This, coupled with lower numbers of in-migration of British citizens, has resulted in increasing net emigration since 2000.''

It added: ''Conversely, immigration of non-British citizens has more than doubled since the early 1990s. Out-migration of non-British citizens has been considerably lower... This has resulted in a pattern of high and increasing net immigration.''

In 2005, there was a net emigration of 107,000 British while net immigration of non-British people amounted to 292,000. In 1991, one third of all citizens entering the UK were British. By 2005, this dropped to 16 per cent.

The 2005 figure was down on 2004, which with net immigration running at 223,000 was the highest ever. When Labour took office in 1997, net immigration was around 50,000 a year, a level at which it had remained for about two decades. More than 4.3 million people born abroad were living in Britain at the time of the 2001 census, an increase of around one million compared with 1991 and two million higher than 30 years ago.

The majority of those granted settlement in 2005 were relatively young, with 116,950 under 35.

Labour politician fesses up. His article can be found here.

Mr Byrne also challenges the idea that immigration concerns have been media driven. ''The only problem with the 'it's all the media' thesis is that it is not quite true,'' he writes.

The good news is that in a democracy, you can get out and vote to do something about these issues.

Oh dear.

The result of a close election, whether local or national, might well be affected by nearly 1 million non - British citizens from the Commonwealth currently resident in the UK who, in a hang-over from the past, have the right to vote here, says a new report out today.

Sir Andrew said that, given the massive increase in the immigrant population in recent years, this has become an important issue – exacerbated by the encouragement of postal voting – which could mean that the outcome of a close run election could be affected by the votes of people who are not British citizens and who may not even have the right to vote. 'At present, for example, there is nothing to stop an Albanian claiming to be a Cypriot or a Somali posing as a Kenyan,' he said.

The report quotes the Electoral Commission as saying that "... the security of existing voting methods is to a considerable extent illusory, since it depends more on the honesty of the voter than on systematic measures to prevent fraud ..."

The honesty of the voter, eh ? Once upon a time there was little doubt about that. No more.

Vote Fraud News

A couple of Lib Dem councillors in Burnley were banged up for fraud a while back.

One resigned and the election was yesterday.

The Liberal Democrats lost control of Burnley Council's Daneshouse with Stoneyholme seat - less than three months after their councillor was jailed for election fraud.

The turnout was a remarkable 52.4% (lots of postal votes ?), and the England First candidate (141 votes) had himself been imprisoned for election fraud in 2002.

The other councillor who got jailed ? He's still hanging on - and claiming the allowances.

Manzur Hussain could be dismissed because he has not attended a meeting for six months - the limit set by the Government. But he has asked fellow councillors not to sack him when they meet to discuss his future on Wednesday. He is claiming that he has been prevented from attending meetings since August 23 by an 18-month sentence for defrauding the returning officer at the 2004 local elections. However, he was only actually jailed on November 23 and had previously been on unconditional bail. And investigations by the Lancashire Telegraph have revealed that during that time he could have attended three meetings including a full council meeting on October 18. In December the Lancashire Telegraph revealed how Hussain, 58, of Milner Street, Burnley, was still claiming his council allowance of £2,100 which was £175 a month.

The other council seat, Brunshaw, went from Labour to Lib Dem, with the BNP second. The Labour vote collapsed in what looks like tactical voting. 39% turnout is pretty high for a non-Asian area.

Daneshouse with Stoneyholme.

Shah Hussain, Lab 944 Mohammed Malik, Lib Dem 906 Steven Smith, England First 141 Alan Marsden, Con 35 Majority 38 Turnout 52.4%.

Brunshaw.

Allen Harris, Lib Dem 875 Paul McDevitt, BNP 538 Karen Baker, Lab 479 Tony Coulson, Con 90 Majority 337 Turnout 39.9%

Vote Fraud Update

Following the jailing of their biggest donor Michael Brown, two Lib Dem councillors face their electoral fraud trial.

The court was told that Burnley was part of an all- postal election experiment in 2004. Many voters in Daneshouse with Stoneyholm, which is mainly populated by people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, had applied for a proxy to cast their vote for them, saying that they were going abroad.

“It was incredible really,” said Dr Taylor, who was then the borough’s chief executive. “There were that many people (195 - LT) all out of the country unable to get to a postbox during that period in particular. We only had 15 proxy applications for the whole of the rest of the borough — 14 wards.

“There were other concerns I had as well when I went through the forms. It seemed to me that there were a lot of similarities about the handwriting.”

Mr Ali, who held on to his seat, told police that his writing appeared on most forms because he had filled in details about voters on their behalf.

As you do.

This story gives little glimpses into the slow appeasement process.

In the council :

Under cross-examination by Paul Reid, QC, Mr Ali’s lawyer, Dr Taylor accepted that the area had experienced a large number of proxy applications when the council decided in 1999 to let Asian women cast absent votes for religious and cultural reasons.

I'd love to know if those reasons were documented. Not being allowed out of the house ? Enabling the husband to control the wife's vote ? Feminism - for whites only ?

And in the police :

As in previous years, most of the applications for proxies were delivered to the town hall just before the deadline. Labour handed in 28 and the Liberal Democrats 167.

Dr Taylor said that the council asked the police to investigate and gave copies of application forms to detectives. The police chose 12 people, all white, whose documents claimed that they were going on extended holidays. None had any intention of going away and the council disqualified their applications.

However, with the deadline upon it, police were unable to check the rest.

Oh, damn ! We've run out of time !

So Lancashire police, faced with 195 applications from an area "which is mainly populated by people of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin" and 15 applications from the rest of the borough, chose to investigate 12 people called Smith.



More vote fraud news here, here, here, here, here and here.

More Labour Vote-Rigging ?

In Peterborough.

"Today, a community leader said he was "saddened" to hear that ex-city councillor and former Mayor Mohammed Choudhary is one of three people who were arrested by officers as part of an operation that has been ongoing for two years.

Mr Choudhary (47) represented the Central ward for Labour until the 2004 elections when he lost his seat. He was Mayor of Peterborough from May 1996 to April 1997.

Also arrested was Tariq Mahmood (39), a Labour party official, and Maqbool Hussain (50), who unsuccessfully stood in the 2004 Peterborough City Council elections as a Labour candidate for the Central Ward.

Today, detectives were planning to meet Peterborough City Council officials to discuss the investigation into the 2004 local elections.

There were concerns about the way the election was conducted in the Central, Park and Ravensthorpe wards after allegations were made of voting cards being sent to the wrong addresses.

In one incident, election officers discovered 20 people had registered to vote from one household."

In the immortal words of Ayoub Khan, "this is the politics of Pakistan or Bangladesh and they've brought it here".

What The Hell Happened In Kingstanding ?

From the vote fraud capital of England, this BBC story:

"A court will have to decide on the validity of a Birmingham election result after the acting chief executive said some votes were counted twice.
The BNP has officially won a seat in Kingstanding, but it was later announced this was not correct and it should have been a Labour win."

"It was later announced".

When was 'later' ? Who announced it ?

It appears that the votes were counted thrice (two recounts), in the presence of the usual tellers, party and council officials. The result was declared.

A couple of hours later, when the only people with access to the ballots were Birmingham council officials, the council apparently decided to conduct a third (and invalid - the winner of en election is s/he who is declared so by the returning officer) count all by their little selves. Apparently, some votes had been double counted, an error not spotted in the three public counts, but immediately apparent once council officials were alone with the ballots.

Amazingly, Labour won both seats in this private recount - for as luck would have it, far more BNP votes had been double counted than any others. And they are inviting the unsuccessful candidates (at the council tax payer's expense) to get their private recount confirmed as the correct one.

Words fail me. DSD has the details, as do the Birmingham Post.

This is serious stuff. I don't care if the winners were Combat 18 or the People's Revolutionary Army, the principle's the same. You count and decide in the presence of those who can keep their eyes open for dodgy dealings, not in the presence of a couple of mates when everyone's gone home.

Reading the council's explanation (pdf) I'm prepared to admit that it's possible, though it will need proving. How was this 'additional column that should not have been on the sheet' not spotted in the previous three counts ? How did this column come to be on the sheet ?

The Returning Officer presiding over this shambles should be sacked. By accident or design, this gives the appearance of an unpopular minority party being cheated of office by the paid staff of the ruling party. The terrible thing is that with the track record of Labour and the Lib Dems I wouldn't put it past them.

UPDATE 1 - Councillor Bob Piper points out in his usual entertaining style that Brum is now a Tory/LD coalition, so although the election staff may have been appointed under Labour, they no longer work for a Labour administration.

UPDATE 2 - it appears that the reverse of this scenario (someone apparently missed the '1' off the front of the BNPs vote figure) is being played out in Barking.

UPDATE 3 - stories like this and this, from Barking and Dagenham, are what make people cheesed with the main parties.

"A YOUNG boy is searching for a shy hero who saved him 'being kicked to death'.
If the brave adult hadn't intervened, 13-year-old Ryan, of Halbutt Street, Dagenham, might have suffered more serious injuries when he was attacked by a gang of thugs.
Now the youngster wants to find the have-a-go hero to say thank you.
Police say that Parsloes Park in Dagenham has become notorious for crime in the past few months.
Ryan and two school friends were cutting across the park at 7pm on Tuesday, last week, when they ran into the crowd of 60 boys and girls, aged between 11 and 20."

"A FRAUDSTER who claimed a staggering £130,000 in tax credits for 12 non-existent children will be deported after greed led to her capture.
Julie Olanrewaju, 31, of St Mary's Road, Barking, claimed the amazing sum after the immigration services simply 'lost' her.
She was only caught because she became greedy and tried to change her tax credit claims to income support.
Olanrewaju was jailed for four years, after which she will be deported.
In a barbed comment, Judge David Radford at Snaresbrook Crown Court said: "I make the recommendation for deportation - with the hope it will be acted on by the Home Secretary."
It was revealed Olanrewaju had applied for leave to remain in Britain in 1991, but was turned down."

1991. She's been here illegally - and ripping off the taxpayer - for 15 years.

Election News - At Last A Party Who Are Tough On Crime

The IWCA have taken another Oxford council seat from Labour.

But sinister developments elsewhere as a small, economically illiterate extremist party gain 14 seats.

UPDATE - more extremists in the Black Country.

UPDATE - wise (if grammatically dodgy) words in Socialist Worker.

"Labour is not going to fall apart over night. It took them decades to build the support and the loyalty that secured them office nationally and locally. But sections of that support has deserted it and dissatisfaction is spreading remorselessly."

Birmingham results are interesting. I'd assumed the Repect win in Sparkbrook was a result of the People's Justice Party not running. Turns out they've joined the Lib Dems. They retained their Bordesley Green seat, but lost Aston to Labour (although you have to make allowances for Labour's unique methods of boosting the vote in Aston).

So the Respect win in Sparkbrook is a straight steal from Labour, as voters with conservative social views and a dislike of Jews find their true home. I wrote this time last year :

"Traditionally Labour has been the party of immigrants, but a point will be reached at which they (Labour) are not needed any more and with a cry of 'so long and thanks for all the outreach workers' the Muslim vote will depart. The divorce will be messy."

One last pointer from Birmingham for those worried about BNP gains elsewhere.

Despite getting around 15% of the vote where they stood in the Birmingham and Sandwell elections, in some constituencies they did very poorly. In Aston, for example, where over 3,200 papers were counted for Labour's Ziaul Islam against only 2,700 for the Lib Dem Abdul Khalique (and Tory Mohammed Mushtaq came a poor fifth), only 200-odd papers were counted for the BNP candidate (Dennis Gary Phillips).

Similarly in Sparkbrook, over 4,300 papers were counted for Respect's Salma Yaqoob, 2,700 for Labour's Mohammed Azim, and 990 for Lib Dem Adil Rashid. Only 100 ballot papers were counted for BNP candidate Matthew Benton.

(Note - in such wards it's better to express the results in terms of ballot papers counted rather than the old-fashioned concept of who most people voted for. The parties have moved on from that.)

Assuming, say, that 30% of the Respect/Lib/Lab vote is the result of vote fraud, that is still an overwhelming rejection of the BNPs bigotry and hatred (although an endorsement of Respect's bigotry and hatred).

So Aston and Sparkbrook hold the answer. If only every ward in the country was like those two, the BNP wouldn't be an issue. What's their secret ?

Vote Fraud Update

Fair play, now - I'd have thought the Indie would have thoroughly approved of postal vote fraud which benefited the Labour party. You live and learn.

In a long list of allegations, including claims that "threats of deportation were made to first-generation migrants if they did not sign postal vote papers to vote Labour", it contends that blank ballot papers were "completed by Labour candidates and activists rather than voters", and that "postal votes were collected in a completed form by Labour party agents, opened, the vote changed and resealed". Here, too, the three winning Labour councillors - Mohammed Islam, Muhammad Afzal and Mohammed Kazi - deny any wrongdoing. All six Labour councillors in Bordesley Green and Aston strenuously deny they had any knowledge of, or consented to, any corrupt practice in the course of their campaigns.

But the fact that these cases are being heard raises huge issues. They coincide with a third case: a former Labour councillor in Blackburn, Mohammed Hussain, faces a possible jail term after pleading guilty last month to conspiracy to rig the 2002 town hall election by getting supporters to fraudulently fill in more than 200 blank postal votes. And alarm bells should be ringing nationwide, because these cases coincide with the build-up to a general election.

They even utter a truth which dare not speak its name.

It's a sensitive issue, but electoral bodies and experts privately agree that inner-city areas of high ethnic-minority population are vulnerable to manipulation of the postal vote system. Ayoub Khan says: "One aspect of the culture is a system of hierarchy that doesn't just extend within the family - it extends into the families of your first cousins, second cousins; and within most extended families there are certain adults who play a very key role." In other words, the deep respect in which elders and senior family members are held means that "key adults and community leaders who have affiliated themselves with a party are in a position where they can extract postal votes in the hundreds".

As I posted last summer:

"It is likely that Labour will consider electoral fraud a price well worth paying for an increased turnout. Which means that future elections where the result is tight will be decided by fraud and/or intimidation. Bad will drive out good as the losers decide 'they're doing it, so we'll have to'. The ruling party will be able to tilt the process, as the police ignore fraud by some parties but prosecute frauds by others. A whole new breed of lawyers specialising in electoral law will exist.

The future ? Soviet levels of turnout and Third World levels of fairness."

Your Postal Vote Frauds Tonight

Remember the postal vote fraud riots, as Labour, Lib Dem and Muslim activists scrapped in the streets of Brum over the contents of a postbox, amid allegations of widespread abuse ?

Slowly, things are happening, in Blackburn.

"A former councillor tried to rig postal voting by collecting ballot forms from voters and getting other people to fill them in in his favour.
Muhammed Hussain, 61, from Logwood Street, Blackburn, Lancashire, admitted the election fraud on Monday. He was warned he faces a prison sentence.

The ex-Labour councillor had a 685 majority in the elections for Bastwell ward on Blackburn Council in 2002."

In Birmingham Bordesley Green and Aston.

"The petitioners claim correction fluid was used to change votes marked for the PJP, the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats into votes for the Labour Party.

It is claimed that the fresh crosses were made in the same handwriting and with the same blue pen.

The court also heard evidence from handwriting expert Michael Allen.

He was given 213 electoral documents to analyse as a sample of ballots cast in favour of Labour that were believed to be suspicious.

His findings suggested at least 80% of those ballots had been faked."


"The mobile phone records of a senior Labour councillor may be commandeered to check if he had any involvement in an alleged city postal vote scam.

Coun Mohammad Afzal denies being present when police were called at midnight to a deserted industrial estate before June's local elections.

Officers found hundreds of blank postal votes in the boot of a car which was driven by Aston Labour activists who claimed they were in the process of " sorting them out".

Liberal Democrats, who are fighting a High Court battle to overthrow the Aston result, have applied for a court order to obtain Coun Afzal's mobile phone records from the local authority.

Coun Afzal has signed a witness statement denying he was on the estate. He said he had been asleep in bed since 10.30pm on that night after consuming a "warm drink"."


Words fail me. Even the Observer is concerned, in the shape of the great and good Nick Cohen.

"There's an almost pathetic desire in everyone with a stake in the democratic process to make postal and internet voting work. A senior official at one very respectable organisation told me he wished I wasn't writing this piece because it would send the 'wrong message'. I'm sure he didn't mean it the way it came out. He was just desperate to get more people involved and break the contempt for politics of the post-democratic age.

It is an honourable aspiration. But the political class doesn't seem to realise that the post-democratic attempts to make voting customer-friendly are reviving the corruptions of the pre-democratic age, and forcing us to fight the battles of the Chartists all over again. "

Read the whole thing.

And what is the Government doing to prevent this happening again ? A big fat zero.

"The Government has ruled out safeguards against rigging postal votes in the general election because time has run out, it emerged yesterday, as a court was told that Labour supporters forged 1,200 votes in a single council ward last June.
One of the country’s leading election experts outlined changes that the independent Electoral Commission believes could prevent people having their votes stolen, but said Whitehall had decided that it was too late to make reforms."

I imagine they are doing something - instructing their activists to be a bit less obvious this time round. Pretty straight guys.