This Voter ID ‘power grab’ is undemocratic – Yorkshire Post Letters

JUST as Boris Johnson’s government tried to change the rules to protect Owen Paterson, they are trying to change electoral law to protect their majority in parliament.

The Elections Bill now going through Parliament reduces the power of the independent Electoral Commission; reduces the number of people likely to vote against them by introducing voter photo ID; reduces the opportunity of non-political organisations to campaign against them; and replaces the proportional systems for choosing mayors and police commissioners with the first past the post system, which they consider would benefit their candidates.

The Parliamentary Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee has a majority of Conservative MPs, but even this committee has been scathing in its criticism of the Bill. They said that the change proposed by the government to the Electoral Commission ‘‘risks undermining public confidence’’.

They reported that when photo ID was used in polling stations in Northern Ireland it resulted in a 2.3 per cent reduction in voter turn-out. If replicated in the rest of the UK, it would mean more than a million voters would be deterred from voting.

With regard to the changes to the electoral system for choosing mayors and police commissioners, they said that the timing of how the changes were introduced precluded debate in the Commons and was ‘‘unsatisfactory and disrespectful’’.

The Bill represents a blatant power grab and it should be called out for what it is: corruption.

From: Peter Rickaby, West Park, Selby.

COME April when the cost of living has gone through the 
roof, it will be of interest to learn how much pre-planning Ministers and civil servants undertook to help those on limited incomes cope with 
the approaching financial tsunami?

From: Paul Carr, Outwood.

THE Conservatives seem to have a penchant for forming a plethora of self-interest groups – European Research Group, Covid Recovery Group, and lately the Zero Scrutiny Group.

I’m looking forward to them forming the Governing The Country Effectively Group, which is after all is what they were elected to do.

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