Democracy in Danger

It is time for a root and branch clean up of our electoral system. Yesterdays Independent reported on a Halifax police investigation into thousands of suspected fraudulent postal votes cast during the recent general election. Linda Riordan (labour) held Halifax from Philip Allott (conservatives) with a majority of 1,472; there are 4,000 suspect ballot papers.
 
In modern times it is six years since electoral fraud raised its ugly head, prior to that you need to go back over one hundred years to find serious examples of electoral corruption. Following allegations of fraud during the Birmingham local council elections of 2004, the Electoral Commission published a damning report that called for all postal voting to be scrapped. The labour government ignored the electoral commission. Then in April 2005 Sir Richard Mawrey QC found six labour councillors guilty of fraud “that would disgrace a banana republic”. During the intervening six years, nothing has been done to clean up the electoral system despite repeated cases of vote rigging.
 
While David Cameron is busy cutting the number of MPs and equalising the size of constituencies I hope he is going to find time to take action against electoral corruption it is an unsightly blight on our democracy.
 
It is no exaggeration to say labour have left the country is a terrible mess, and it is not just a financial mess.
Best Wishes
Will