In recent days, I have been asked to reapply for my postal vote as the legislation has now changed and I needed to register for the next three years ahead. I made my application and was subsequently informed that it had been accepted about which I was naturally grateful. But the procedure involved me writing my signature on a piece of paper, then getting a photo of this on my phone and then using this image to accompany one’s application. For me, the process was fairly straight forward but I used the facility in my iPhone to email a photo to my own own account and then in my main computer I was able to transfer the signature image file into a folder from whence it could be retrieved to complete the application. But I did wonder how many seniors and particularly those without the so-called smart phones would be able to complete this exercise unaided? Then a further question occurred to me which is whether council officials would be manually verifying the signature on my voting form when this occurs against the signature held on file but I found the answer online. As you might expect, this process is now completed automatically and the Electoral Commission has produced extraordinarily detailed guidance for the benefit of returning officers. But I ask myself the question whether if there was a mismatch, the voter would be informed? The guidance I have managed to seek on this point is silent on this point but apart from the vote being rejected and/or the police being informed, the answer appears to be a ‘No’ So I wonder how many of the votes of the elderly are actually discounted in elections in the future with the postal vote unaware that their vote had not been counted? I remember quite vividly the case of my own mother when she was in a residential home requesting that she be included on the electoral register only to be informed that they ‘did not do that’ for residents. My mother was passionately concerned that women having had to fight so hard for the vote should always use it and, to her credit, due to her doggedness and her insistence was eventually registered to vote but it was not an easy matter. I doubt any research has been done on the process but given the much greater numbers of the population now in residential homes, I wonder how many of them actually have their votes registered and counted? The rapid advance in technology has meant that the checking of legitimate votes is now much easier but the extent of electoral fraud is officially reported as being extraordinarily low with about 50 convictions in any one year. But there is much more evidence that the numbers of people deterred from voting because of the complexity of the procedures vastly exceeds the amount of recorded fraud and in the United States, this is known as ‘voter suppression’ and is a weapon utilised extensively by the Republicans to gain an electoral advantage. So, we are left in the UK with the distinct impression that the tightening of rules concerning the conduct of elections was less to do with the elimination of fraud than it was to convey an electoral advantage.
In the morning, I decided to go down and visit the Methodist Centre in the middle pf the town to which I used to convey Meg in her wheelchair in the days when I could still get her into and out of the car. The centre contains what is called a ‘chatty’ table where one can usually converse in some pleasant conversation. But today did not turn out as planned and, in fact, was disappointing to me. After the comings and goings associated with the ‘Strength and Balance’ classes which are a regular staple of Wednesday mornings and eventually when I surveyed the room I was the only male in a room of about fifteen elderly females. As they were all locals, the topic of conversation revolved around the local schools they had attended in their youth, and the local schools that both their children and then their grandchildren attended. Evidently, I had not heard of any of them and some had even not survived after which the conversation turned to the cancer diagnoses of either themselves or their friends. So I found myself sitting alone, with the fifteen ladies sitting around the chatty table discussing schools and ailments so having consumed my coffee and cake there was nothing else much to do but to get up and leave. I recognised some of the people by sight but of course they had known each other for decades whilst I was the newcomer. So I returned home not in the best of moods and consoled myself by burying myself deep in a ‘Super Fiendish Sudoku’ which I did manage to solve. Although I had scheduled myself to cut the back lawn, it is very cloudy and overcast at the moment but according to the app on my phone, the weather should improve with some sunshine in the late afternoon so I may delay my gardening activities until then.
Domestic politics continues apace with the Conservatives promising to abolish stamp duty and with the cost of several billions coming from denying sickness benefits to those mental illness adjudged not to be particularly severe. Of course, this hits two Tory targets at once (tax cuts plus benefits reduction). Sky News is reporting as the Tory party conference ends that the brutal findings of the YouGov poll suggesting Conservative members want leader Kemi Badenoch out and a pact with Nigel Farage confirm what the party’s gloomy MPs are telling Sky News here in Manchester. One MP, whose majority slumped from nearly 18,000 to less than 1,500 last year, said a deal with Reform UK was essential to prevent Labour clinging to power at the next general election with support of the Liberal Democrats, nationalists and Greens. Another veteran MP predicted that in the former Conservative stronghold of Essex, where Reform UK won two seats last year, the Tories could lose every seat in the county – including Ms Badenoch’s North West Essex – because of a surge in support for Mr Farage’s party. Of course, the next general election is some years off but there are local elections in May which will be a massive test of the popularity (or lack of it) of the Tories under the leadership of Kemi Badenock.