Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
"Israel destroyed the Syrian military fleet overnight, Israel's defence minister Israel Katz has said.
The operation appeared to be part of a broader campaign to eliminate strategic threats to Israel, and came after the IDF targeted airbases and science laboratories in Syria."
Should we be surprised that the CEO and majority Shareholder of Refor PLC, a rather shadowy start up with an Office in Clacton, that the CEO has never visited is flying off to the USA for his 6th trip this year.
This despite having a day job in London that pays in the region of 80k a year for about 30 days a year that he attends.
Should we not be surprised that this chav was once on a one day a week contract in Brussels for an annual stipend of 250k and an added 25ok in claimed expenses.
No doubt the handful of minority felliwshareholders will be worried that he has pocketed another 3m from the candtystore.
Meanwhile 100,000 educationally subnormal £5 investors will be awaiting their Christmas message from the head of their fighting wing, Martyr Tommy.
Rumour has it that Santa may be bringing Chinese made Tesla dinky cars for Christmas Presents for the delinquent S to play pap paps and toot and toot to their hearts content on Christmas Day
Thousands of women are set to have their equal pay claims settled with a council after several years.
The agreement between Birmingham City Council, Unison and the GMB union will see 6,000 staff with the authority receive settlement payouts. The equal pay issue was one of the key factors in the authority declaring effective bankruptcy last year when it said it was facing a bill of £760m to settle the claims.
This is in general a good thing. Female roles have long been underpaid This is also why gender gap declarations are valuable. But the refuse collection thing was silly and makes you wonder if judges need to get out more. And since @OldKingCole and @turbotubbs earlier on this thread raised the feminisation of pharmacists, it would be interesting to see if this has been accompanied by a relative fall in their remuneration.
Not that I am aware off. That has been down to increased numbers of pharmacists in general (lots more schools of Pharmacy opened in the last 20 years or so, so the supply increased). Medics beware...
Every couple of months, when I collect my prescription from our pharmacy, they cannot find it and need to look it up on the computer. Perhaps your university should train its students in (a) reading and (b) filing.
To be serious, I suspect this is really a problem with the way prescription forms are designed and that sometimes names spill onto a second line. Britain needs more psychologists imo (see also ballot papers favouring the candidate at the top).
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
Especially the poorly educated, the prejudiced, the bigots. Not enough of them use their power at the ballot box.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
If someone is on the register who doesn't exist or has died but manages to vote they don't do it by an impostor turning up at the polling station. They do it by postal vote. This is a common electoral fraud with non-existent voters being put on the register and which the last government did nothing to stop
I know we have gone over this hundreds of times and I don't get why people don't get it but it is practically impossible to commit a meaningful voter fraud at the polling station, yet we pass a law to prevent what doesn't happen, from happening, and as a consequence stopping a number of lawful voters from voting.
Why doesn't it happen? Because you can't keep turning up at a polling station and not get recognised. In fact you might get stopped the first time if you are recognised as not the person whose vote you are trying to steal when you say your name and address, particularly if they have already voted or the polling clerk or someone in the polling station knows them which is highly likely. At best you can add 1 or 2 votes and with a high chance of ending up behind bars. Whereas if you add non-existent people to the register you can easily vote by post fraudulently.
Something most people aren't aware of is Candidates/Agents can appoint a polling agent to observe the voting and one of the roles is to spot personation. It is rarely done because the risk is so low, but about 50 years ago we were aware that it might happen at a particular polling station (we had our sources) so we appointed a polling agent. Using our canvas data we monitored for people who said they weren't going to vote who did. We challenged a total of two. One was genuine (she said she was going to be away and wasn't) and the other did a runner.
So it will happen, but only performed by idiots and won't affect a vote unless the result is within a vote or two (and the count isn't that accurate), yet postal vote fraud is just so easy and much safer to commit and can be done in larger numbers.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
Especially the poorly educated, the prejudiced, the bigots. Not enough of them use their power at the ballot box.
The people who want greater freedom to vote are often those still apoplectic that the poorly educated, the prejudiced, the bigots turned out to vote for Brexit.
If only they could go back in time and put up barriers to voting for Brexit, eh?
Thousands of women are set to have their equal pay claims settled with a council after several years.
The agreement between Birmingham City Council, Unison and the GMB union will see 6,000 staff with the authority receive settlement payouts. The equal pay issue was one of the key factors in the authority declaring effective bankruptcy last year when it said it was facing a bill of £760m to settle the claims.
This is in general a good thing. Female roles have long been underpaid This is also why gender gap declarations are valuable. But the refuse collection thing was silly and makes you wonder if judges need to get out more. And since @OldKingCole and @turbotubbs earlier on this thread raised the feminisation of pharmacists, it would be interesting to see if this has been accompanied by a relative fall in their remuneration.
Not that I am aware off. That has been down to increased numbers of pharmacists in general (lots more schools of Pharmacy opened in the last 20 years or so, so the supply increased). Medics beware...
Every couple of months, when I collect my prescription from our pharmacy, they cannot find it and need to look it up on the computer. Perhaps your university should train its students in (a) reading and (b) filing.
To be serious, I suspect this is really a problem with the way prescription forms are designed and that sometimes names spill onto a second line. Britain needs more psychologists imo (see also ballot papers favouring the candidate at the top).
There are loads of places in everyday life that I think 'if I was in charge, we'd change that system - why is it so inefficient' and wonder why nobody else has done it. From the way in which queues are organised (ideally you have a single queue to multiple serving points - not multiple small queues) to things like the design of forms such as you describe above so that the name is prominent, easy to see and read. It is the everyday version of the Team Sky approach to incremental gains - what small things can be done on the ground to make efficiency improvements.
If the rebel army of syria has a bit of guile about them, then they should demand Assad back from Moscow to stand trial in exchange for the naval base.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
If someone is on the register who doesn't exist or has died but manages to vote they don't do it by an impostor turning up at the polling station. They do it by postal vote. This is a common electoral fraud with non-existent voters being put on the register and which the last government did nothing to stop
I know we have gone over this hundreds of times and I don't get why people don't get it but it is practically impossible to commit a meaningful voter fraud at the polling station, yet we pass a law to prevent what doesn't happen, from happening, and as a consequence stopping a number of lawful voters from voting.
Why doesn't it happen? Because you can't keep turning up at a polling station and not get recognised. In fact you might get stopped the first time if you are recognised as not the person whose vote you are trying to steal when you say your name and address, particularly if they have already voted or the polling clerk or someone in the polling station knows them which is highly likely. At best you can add 1 or 2 votes and with a high chance of ending up behind bars. Whereas if you add non-existent people to the register you can easily vote by post fraudulently.
Something most people aren't aware of is Candidates/Agents can appoint a polling agent to observe the voting and one of the roles is to spot personation. It is rarely done because the risk is so low, but about 50 years ago we were aware that it might happen at a particular polling station (we had our sources) so we appointed a polling agent. Using our canvas data we monitored for people who said they weren't going to vote who did. We challenged a total of two. One was genuine (she said she was going to be away and wasn't) and the other did a runner.
So it will happen, but only performed by idiots and won't affect a vote unless the result is within a vote or two (and the count isn't that accurate), yet postal vote fraud is just so easy and much safer to commit and can be done in larger numbers.
Surely the observing the count rule is also done by canvassers (or whatever they care called) at polling who ask the voters how they voted, who *are* often in place?
They also aiui fairly routinely have observers at postal counts because that gives an inkling of how things are going. Was that not how Kerry McCarthy landed herself in a slight pickle in 2010, when she told some people (ie all of us) what she had found out?
If the rebel army of syria has a bit of guile about them, then they should demand Assad back from Moscow to stand trial in exchange for the naval base.
And if the West knows what's good for it, it'll pay the rebels handsomely to not do that.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
Especially the poorly educated, the prejudiced, the bigots. Not enough of them use their power at the ballot box.
The people who want greater freedom to vote are often those still apoplectic that the poorly educated, the prejudiced, the bigots turned out to vote for Brexit.
If only they could go back in time and put up barriers to voting for Brexit, eh?
Nothing wrong with wanting more people to vote and for people to be better educated and less bigoted.
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
If someone is on the register who doesn't exist or has died but manages to vote they don't do it by an impostor turning up at the polling station. They do it by postal vote. This is a common electoral fraud with non-existent voters being put on the register and which the last government did nothing to stop
I know we have gone over this hundreds of times and I don't get why people don't get it but it is practically impossible to commit a meaningful voter fraud at the polling station, yet we pass a law to prevent what doesn't happen, from happening, and as a consequence stopping a number of lawful voters from voting.
Why doesn't it happen? Because you can't keep turning up at a polling station and not get recognised. In fact you might get stopped the first time if you are recognised as not the person whose vote you are trying to steal when you say your name and address, particularly if they have already voted or the polling clerk or someone in the polling station knows them which is highly likely. At best you can add 1 or 2 votes and with a high chance of ending up behind bars. Whereas if you add non-existent people to the register you can easily vote by post fraudulently.
Something most people aren't aware of is Candidates/Agents can appoint a polling agent to observe the voting and one of the roles is to spot personation. It is rarely done because the risk is so low, but about 50 years ago we were aware that it might happen at a particular polling station (we had our sources) so we appointed a polling agent. Using our canvas data we monitored for people who said they weren't going to vote who did. We challenged a total of two. One was genuine (she said she was going to be away and wasn't) and the other did a runner.
So it will happen, but only performed by idiots and won't affect a vote unless the result is within a vote or two (and the count isn't that accurate), yet postal vote fraud is just so easy and much safer to commit and can be done in larger numbers.
Surely the observing the count rule is also done by canvassers (or whatever they care called) at polling who ask the voters how they voted, who *are* often in place?
They also aiui fairly routinely have observers at postal counts because that gives an inkling of how things are going. Was that not how Kerry McCarthy landed herself in a slight pickle in 2010, when she told some people (ie all of us) what she had found out?
No this is very different. Tellers are outside of the polling station and can not do what I described (again below). They can not observe you vote. They can not challenge a voter as being genuine.
So a candidate/agent can appoint a 'polling agent'. They can sit next to the clerks in the polling station and witness the box starts empty, is sealed properly at the end and watch each voter being allocated his/her ballot paper accurately, marked off the register and watch them vote.
You rarely see it happen because we don't bother as the process is safe and even if we did you might not notice as they would not be wearing anything to identify the party.
Most people are unaware of this. It is very different to being a teller and a much more responsible roles.
Has anyone told the Royal Family, the majority of the Aristocracy, large sways of gentryfied historic Landowners, a lot of old family historic Farmers, the inhabitants of Emmerdale and WV postcodes??
Iqbal Mohamed did a great job standing up for country boys with big ears and 12 fingers.
There is little evidence of in-breeding in any but the upper echelons of royalty. What the Royal Families of the world do show is that beauty is not an inherited trait. By their power generally they had the chance to marry the fairest in the land and tended to choose the fairest in the land. So you would think according to Mendelism the Royal families should be better looking that us plebs.
When you marry with the aim of having children with the brains of Einstein and the looks of Princess Diana you run the risk of having children with the looks of Einstein and the brains of Princess Diana - As Prince Harry demonstrates
The upper echelons of royalty were hugely inbred well into the 20th century, the great bulk of whom married within their social caste and religion (although Orthodox could marry Protestants providing they converted, and vice versa). Far from marrying for looks, they invariably married for alliances, money, land and power. That said, I don't think there are many examples of first-cousin marriage within the British royals.
Checking the nerd-net, the most prominent is perhaps Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.
Since the had umpteen children and were the hub of European Royalty for the next century, it must have been complicated therefrom.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
UN digital ID is being rolled out but we shoudnt use it for voting?
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Yep but sadly (I am looking at you Tories) it only becomes a problem when that which you benefited from before suddenly bites you in the arse. This being a classic example. One of the other famous ones being Literal Democrats which they laughed off when they unfairly won Devon in the European elections and then got upset about it when Conservatory candidates started appearing.
If the rebel army of syria has a bit of guile about them, then they should demand Assad back from Moscow to stand trial in exchange for the naval base.
And if the West knows what's good for it, it'll pay the rebels handsomely to not do that.
They should probably hold an auction for the lease. Invite China along to bid, too.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
Especially the poorly educated, the prejudiced, the bigots. Not enough of them use their power at the ballot box.
The poorly educated, the prejudiced, the bigots, the too stupid, the too lazy, all are entitled to vote and have their voice heard. Politics is not about choosing the right or wrong government, it's about obtaining consent from the governed. You don't weigh heads, you count them.
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Yep but sadly (I am looking at you Tories) it only becomes a problem when that which you benefited from before suddenly bites you in the arse. This being a classic example. One of the other famous ones being Literal Democrats which they laughed off when they unfairly won Devon in the European elections and then got upset about it when Conservatory candidates started appearing.
Normally the party in government gets most of the donations. So it’s not a problem.
It becomes a problem when an opposition party starts getting lots of donors.
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social · 31m Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
Yep but sadly (I am looking at you Tories) it only becomes a problem when that which you benefited from before suddenly bites you in the arse. This being a classic example. One of the other famous ones being Literal Democrats which they laughed off when they unfairly won Devon in the European elections and then got upset about it when Conservatory candidates started appearing.
Even if there's a clampdown there'll be ways round it. 1000000s of micro donations on Facebook / twitter, organisations other than the party campaigning for them etc Then even if EC finds wrongdoing, the sanction will be ineffective.
@MattW Did you see my reply re 'Polling Agents' Sorry I edited about a dozen times, mainly because I misread what you asked. Does it make sense?
A 'Polling Agent' is not a 'Teller' which you described. A 'Polling Agent' is an exceedingly responsible and rare role. A teller is just collecting data for the GOTV activity.
A teller has no official role. A polling agent does. He/She can challenge the right of a voter to vote via the Polling Station Officer and challenge that the vote is being performed legally. He/She sits with the clerks. Tellers aren't allowed there. They can even apply their own seal to the ballot box and other documents at the end of voting.
Betfred complains about lack of rugby league representation:-
Figure skating, sailing and show jumping have appeared in the SPOTY top three more times than rugby league. An unusual anomaly, given rugby league is the fifth-most attended sport in the United Kingdom, as per a 2022 report. ... So for now, Liam Farrell, a captain of his hometown club, lifting every trophy available within the same season, born into a storied family of rugby greats, will sit this one out. https://x.com/Betfred/status/1866498114984739049
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cars should be discouraged.
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cars should be discouraged.
Indeed. It’s almost irrelevant whether there is car production here to use it. If you make batteries at a vaguely competitive price, they will sell for export, as a start.
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cats should be discouraged.
It might be cheaper just to have so many turbines up that you very rarely need significant storage. My back of envelope calculations suggest 400GWh only increases our self-sufficiency rate (number of days without imports) from about 79% to 96%, while 200GWh would get you 87%. In both cases, the batteries would be completely full 70% of the time.
Almost certainly cheaper to import from Europe than attempt to achieve 100% self-sufficiency, though I appreciate there are security benefits particularly with cables being cut.
*Under current plans to treble renewable capacity, and not taking into account any increase in demand.
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cats should be discouraged.
It might be cheaper just to have so many turbines up that you very rarely need significant storage. My back of envelope calculations suggest 400GWh only increases our self-sufficiency rate (number of days without imports) from about 79% to 96%, while 200GWh would get you 87%. In both cases, the batteries would be completely full 80% of the time.
Almost certainly cheaper to import from Europe than attempt to achieve 100% self-sufficiency, though I appreciate there are security benefits particularly with cables being cut.
*Under current plans to treble renewable capacity, and not taking into account any increase in demand.
One of the reasons why manufacturing batteries makes sense is that they have a dual usage, from time-shifting electricity from renewables, to powering cars and other vehicles.
"Israel destroyed the Syrian military fleet overnight, Israel's defence minister Israel Katz has said.
The operation appeared to be part of a broader campaign to eliminate strategic threats to Israel, and came after the IDF targeted airbases and science laboratories in Syria."
"An independent MP today spoke out against a proposed ban on first cousins being able to marry in Britain. Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley, told the House of Commons that many people view family intermarriage as 'very positive'. He said it was seen as something that could help 'build family bonds' and put families on a more secure financial foothold'. Mr Mohamed admitted there were 'health risks' for the children of such marriages. But he said a 'more positive approach' would be to 'facilitate advanced genetic test screening' for couples wishing to marry. He also called for 'education programmes' to be targeted at those communities where family intermarriage is most common, as he told MPs to reject an outright ban."
"An independent MP today spoke out against a proposed ban on first cousins being able to marry in Britain. Iqbal Mohamed, MP for Dewsbury and Batley, told the House of Commons that many people view family intermarriage as 'very positive'. He said it was seen as something that could help 'build family bonds' and put families on a more secure financial foothold'. Mr Mohamed admitted there were 'health risks' for the children of such marriages. But he said a 'more positive approach' would be to 'facilitate advanced genetic test screening' for couples wishing to marry. He also called for 'education programmes' to be targeted at those communities where family intermarriage is most common, as he told MPs to reject an outright ban."
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cars should be discouraged.
I've been boring on about that for the best part of a decade - and often assured by PBers that it wasn't necessary. Basically we need to get CATL, as they have the most advanced (and cheapest) manufacturing tech for batteries.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
UN digital ID is being rolled out but we shoudnt use it for voting?
So, you believe that the One World Government (the UN) is going to mandate that countries implement the UN Digital ID, so that the UN can track people?
I'm just checking where on the loony meter I need to put you.
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cars should be discouraged.
I've been boring on about that for the best part of a decade - and often assured by PBers that it wasn't necessary. Basically we need to get CATL, as they have the most advanced (and cheapest) manufacturing tech for batteries.
Would be a far better use for the £20 odd billion we're throwing away on carbon capture. Would benefit the economy massively. And make electricity cheaper, not more expensive.
Should we be surprised that the CEO and majority Shareholder of Refor PLC, a rather shadowy start up with an Office in Clacton, that the CEO has never visited is flying off to the USA for his 6th trip this year.
This despite having a day job in London that pays in the region of 80k a year for about 30 days a year that he attends.
Should we not be surprised that this chav was once on a one day a week contract in Brussels for an annual stipend of 250k and an added 25ok in claimed expenses.
No doubt the handful of minority felliwshareholders will be worried that he has pocketed another 3m from the candtystore.
Meanwhile 100,000 educationally subnormal £5 investors will be awaiting their Christmas message from the head of their fighting wing, Martyr Tommy.
Rumour has it that Santa may be bringing Chinese made Tesla dinky cars for Christmas Presents for the delinquent S to play pap paps and toot and toot to their hearts content on Christmas Day
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cats should be discouraged.
It might be cheaper just to have so many turbines up that you very rarely need significant storage. My back of envelope calculations suggest 400GWh only increases our self-sufficiency rate (number of days without imports) from about 79% to 96%, while 200GWh would get you 87%. In both cases, the batteries would be completely full 70% of the time.
Almost certainly cheaper to import from Europe than attempt to achieve 100% self-sufficiency, though I appreciate there are security benefits particularly with cables being cut.
*Under current plans to treble renewable capacity, and not taking into account any increase in demand.
You're not accounting for either the increased demand for electricity, or the requirement for EV manufacturing, though.
The excess capacity argument works quite well for solar - which is the cheapest renewable by some distance - but certainly not for offshore wind, which you'd need for those sort of numbers.
Betfred complains about lack of rugby league representation:-
Figure skating, sailing and show jumping have appeared in the SPOTY top three more times than rugby league. An unusual anomaly, given rugby league is the fifth-most attended sport in the United Kingdom, as per a 2022 report. ... So for now, Liam Farrell, a captain of his hometown club, lifting every trophy available within the same season, born into a storied family of rugby greats, will sit this one out. https://x.com/Betfred/status/1866498114984739049
While we're about it, it is a bugbear of mine that Rugby League almost never appears as a question in Pointless*. "Sport", the category would say, and I would be pleased. And then "Tennis". A ridiculous amount of tennis. Sometimes football, sometimes the Olympics, occasionally motor racing, occasionally cricket, occasionally rugby union. Once in a blue moon American Football. Never rugby league. On the BBC Sport webpage, sports are listed in broad order of importance: Football (though it pains me to admit it), Cricket, Formula 1, Rugby Union, Rugby League. THEN tennis, golf, boxing, athletics. Yet Rugby League almost never gets a look in.
It used to get a lot more attention when it was on the BBC. Used to be a staple Saturday afternoon that: after some sporting activity in the morning, I'd spend the afternoon in front of Grandstand with my Dad. The centrepiece of the show would inevitably be a rugby league match. Now for me personally rugby union was more of a highlight, but a league match was a perfectly enjoyable way to spend Saturday afternoon. Much preferable to tennis. Yet 40 years later, it's Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova who get all the attention on Pointless. Ellery Hanley and Martin Offiah never get a look in. I'd give you some more up to date names but as League has sold it's soul to Murdoch I wouldn't really be able to name any.
*This was true seven years ago. My finger has fallen off the Pointless pulse a little of late.
Targeted to start production by end of 2026 at Stellantis’ Zaragoza, Spain site, the facility could reach up to 50 GWh capacity, subject to the evolution of the electrical market in Europe and continued support from authorities in Spain and the European Union. The 50-50 joint venture between CATL and Stellantis will boost Stellantis’ best-in-class LFP offer in Europe enabling the automaker to offer more high-quality, durable and affordable battery-electric passenger cars, crossovers and SUVs in the B and C segments with intermediate ranges...
50GWh is about 500,000 large car batteries. Going to need a lot more of these factories.
Yes, that's why there are quite a number of them being built. Just not here.
A country the size of Britain probably wants at least 500GWh of battery production or it's going to be spending a lot of money unnecessarily on imports.
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cats should be discouraged.
It might be cheaper just to have so many turbines up that you very rarely need significant storage. My back of envelope calculations suggest 400GWh only increases our self-sufficiency rate (number of days without imports) from about 79% to 96%, while 200GWh would get you 87%. In both cases, the batteries would be completely full 70% of the time.
Almost certainly cheaper to import from Europe than attempt to achieve 100% self-sufficiency, though I appreciate there are security benefits particularly with cables being cut.
*Under current plans to treble renewable capacity, and not taking into account any increase in demand.
You're not accepting for either the increased demand for electricity, or the requirement for EV manufacturing, though.
The excess capacity argument works quite well for solar - which is the cheapest renewable by some distance - but certainly not for offshore wind, which you'd need for those sort of numbers.
True, I just think you'll meet with significant diminishing marginal returns for storage as you approach 100% self-sufficiency - from my calcs, you'd need to double it from 1000GWh to 2000 GWh to go from 98% to 100%.
Just keep a back-up gas power station going instead - plant some trees to make up for it.
Blow to UK as equipment hire giant Ashtead heads for US
Equipment hire giant Ashtead plans to move its primary stock market listing to the US in a fresh blow to the London Stock Exchange. It said the US was a "natural long term listing venue" because most of its profit was in North America, along with its bosses, headquarters and the majority of its employees.
Ashtead is the latest of several big companies in recent years to delist from the London Stock Exchange [LSE], which denied it was in crisis in May.
Some of the research going into radar tech is quite something. It is not necessarily about new radars with increased power or frequency; it's the analysis of the signals that come back to discriminate the targets. In fact, in many cases the radars don't even have to scan/rotate.
I'll bet you any money they're using holographic radar principles, at least partially.
Published a few days ago, "Who lacks voter identification? The electoral implications of the Elections Act 2022", by Edward Fieldhouse et al.
The Elections Act 2022 requires voters to present photo identification at general elections in Great Britain and local elections in England. In this article, we use data from the British Election Study Internet Panel to identify who does and does not own the necessary photo documents and how this affected turnout in the 2023 and 2024 local elections, as well as the 2024 General Election. We find that around 5% of the voting-age population lack valid voter identification and that this is related to age, education, socio-economic status, and social grade. The data also give us a reliable indication of the party-political impact of the photo ID requirement. We find that conservative voters are more likely to hold valid photo identification than supporters of other parties. We also find that a small but significant proportion of registered voters (between 1.2% and 2.4%) reported either being turned away or dissuaded from voting at these elections because of the requirement.
And how did he interview that section of society who weren't allowed to vote because they didn't exist, and those who were already dead ? Without a consideration of those who the act was intended to disenfranchise it follows that his analysis and his conclusions must be worthless.
There is no evidence these ghost voters existed outside Northern Ireland, and nor is there any great evidence of personation (impersonating real voters) either. First, it would be easy to detect; second, it would need to be done at large scale to change the result.
And in any case, it has already been let slip that photo ID was required in order to stop Labour voters.
Let slip by whom?
If that's the case, then yes its highly cynical. About as cynical as trying to get 16 sand 17 year olds the vote as they skew to Labour.
Most countries in the world require ID to vote. As long as there are simple, easy ways to procure such an ID (as it the case, I believe) then I don't see the issue. If you are (a) too stupid or (b) too lazy or (c) both to get useable ID then I don't really want you deciding on the next government, be that parish council all the way up to MP level.
Lots of countries in the world have ID cards, so it's straightforward to use them. We don't.
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
Also, in Germany when I bring the polling card that is automatically sent through the post, I've never been asked for ID when voting . It's also true that everyone eligible to vote in a national election will also have an ID card, which people generally carry around with them.
Completely different situation to Britain.
On votes at 16, it's maybe a good idea, but should be done with cross-party support. But if not I guess it's just payback.
@MattW Did you see my reply re 'Polling Agents' Sorry I edited about a dozen times, mainly because I misread what you asked. Does it make sense?
A 'Polling Agent' is not a 'Teller' which you described. A 'Polling Agent' is an exceedingly responsible and rare role. A teller is just collecting data for the GOTV activity.
A teller has no official role. A polling agent does. He/She can challenge the right of a voter to vote via the Polling Station Officer and challenge that the vote is being performed legally. He/She sits with the clerks. Tellers aren't allowed there. They can even apply their own seal to the ballot box and other documents at the end of voting.
Chaos Incoming: Alina Habba-Dabba-Doo to be appointed to Counselor to the President. I think she's lost every case for him, at a cost of many - perhaps hundreds - of millions, but I may have forgotten something.
She might not last long. Wasn't WH Counsel the job that changed every series of the West Wing (presumably because they did not want to pay actors enough)? There was the one with the gavel, and the one with the cricket bat, and probably others.
Comments
We should be encouraging more people to vote, not putting up barriers.
The operation appeared to be part of a broader campaign to eliminate strategic threats to Israel, and came after the IDF targeted airbases and science laboratories in Syria."
https://news.sky.com/story/syria-latest-assad-russia-trump-israel-migrants-13265154
This despite having a day job in London that pays in the region of 80k a year for about 30 days a year that he attends.
Should we not be surprised that this chav was once on a one day a week contract in Brussels for an annual stipend of 250k and an added 25ok in claimed expenses.
No doubt the handful of minority felliwshareholders will be worried that he has pocketed another 3m from the candtystore.
Meanwhile 100,000 educationally subnormal £5 investors will be awaiting their Christmas message from the head of their fighting wing, Martyr Tommy.
Rumour has it that Santa may be bringing Chinese made Tesla dinky cars for Christmas Presents for the delinquent S to play pap paps and toot and toot to their hearts content on Christmas Day
To be serious, I suspect this is really a problem with the way prescription forms are designed and that sometimes names spill onto a second line. Britain needs more psychologists imo (see also ballot papers favouring the candidate at the top).
I know we have gone over this hundreds of times and I don't get why people don't get it but it is practically impossible to commit a meaningful voter fraud at the polling station, yet we pass a law to prevent what doesn't happen, from happening, and as a consequence stopping a number of lawful voters from voting.
Why doesn't it happen? Because you can't keep turning up at a polling station and not get recognised. In fact you might get stopped the first time if you are recognised as not the person whose vote you are trying to steal when you say your name and address, particularly if they have already voted or the polling clerk or someone in the polling station knows them which is highly likely. At best you can add 1 or 2 votes and with a high chance of ending up behind bars. Whereas if you add non-existent people to the register you can easily vote by post fraudulently.
Something most people aren't aware of is Candidates/Agents can appoint a polling agent to observe the voting and one of the roles is to spot personation. It is rarely done because the risk is so low, but about 50 years ago we were aware that it might happen at a particular polling station (we had our sources) so we appointed a polling agent. Using our canvas data we monitored for people who said they weren't going to vote who did. We challenged a total of two. One was genuine (she said she was going to be away and wasn't) and the other did a runner.
So it will happen, but only performed by idiots and won't affect a vote unless the result is within a vote or two (and the count isn't that accurate), yet postal vote fraud is just so easy and much safer to commit and can be done in larger numbers.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/david-lammys-geography-gaffe/
If only they could go back in time and put up barriers to voting for Brexit, eh?
I would say Mr Poophole, but he was on C5 not R2 with JV, and is imo far too busy printing money to visit here.
Cap Skirring. Beautiful palm fringed beaches and rather good beach front restaurants. Hardly any tourists.
They also aiui fairly routinely have observers at postal counts because that gives an inkling of how things are going. Was that not how Kerry McCarthy landed herself in a slight pickle in 2010, when she told some people (ie all of us) what she had found out?
Peter Geoghegan @petergeoghegan.bsky.social
·
31m
Britain's election laws are completely unfit for purpose. Not only could Reform's donors give unlimited amounts of money, there is pretty much no accounting for how it is spend outside of a general election
This needs to change. Now.
https://bsky.app/profile/petergeoghegan.bsky.social/post/3lcxhcx7o722a
So a candidate/agent can appoint a 'polling agent'. They can sit next to the clerks in the polling station and witness the box starts empty, is sealed properly at the end and watch each voter being allocated his/her ballot paper accurately, marked off the register and watch them vote.
You rarely see it happen because we don't bother as the process is safe and even if we did you might not notice as they would not be wearing anything to identify the party.
Most people are unaware of this. It is very different to being a teller and a much more responsible roles.
Since the had umpteen children and were the hub of European Royalty for the next century, it must have been complicated therefrom.
One list is here:
https://www.readersdigest.com.au/culture/12-royals-who-married-their-relatives
I support Democracy
You are a dodgy donor
He/she is a Threat to Democracy
Just not here.
Invite China along to bid, too.
Why would they want Assad back ?
It becomes a problem when an opposition party starts getting lots of donors.
Funny that.
Then even if EC finds wrongdoing, the sanction will be ineffective.
A 'Polling Agent' is not a 'Teller' which you described. A 'Polling Agent' is an exceedingly responsible and rare role. A teller is just collecting data for the GOTV activity.
A teller has no official role. A polling agent does. He/She can challenge the right of a voter to vote via the Polling Station Officer and challenge that the vote is being performed legally. He/She sits with the clerks. Tellers aren't allowed there. They can even apply their own seal to the ballot box and other documents at the end of voting.
Most of the 10 provinces in Canada would not even consider joining Trump's US though except maybe Alberta, Manitoba and Saskatchewan
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Simon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_General_of_Canada
Betfred complains about lack of rugby league representation:-
Figure skating, sailing and show jumping have appeared in the SPOTY top three more times than rugby league. An unusual anomaly, given rugby league is the fifth-most attended sport in the United Kingdom, as per a 2022 report.
...
So for now, Liam Farrell, a captain of his hometown club, lifting every trophy available within the same season, born into a storied family of rugby greats, will sit this one out.
https://x.com/Betfred/status/1866498114984739049
It's tragic to see Britain fall behind on this while so much more attention is spent on arguing over fuel duty, and whether ICE cars should be discouraged.
Almost certainly cheaper to import from Europe than attempt to achieve 100% self-sufficiency, though I appreciate there are security benefits particularly with cables being cut.
*Under current plans to treble renewable capacity, and not taking into account any increase in demand.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14177851/MP-speaks-AGAINST-proposed-ban-cousins-able-marry-Britain-claims-intermarriage-help-build-family-bonds.html
Basically we need to get CATL, as they have the most advanced (and cheapest) manufacturing tech for batteries.
Former defense minister ordered troops to prevent more than 150 lawmakers from gathering at National Assembly, commander says
https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/12/356_388131.html\
I'm just checking where on the loony meter I need to put you.
https://www.defensenews.com/breaking-news/2024/12/10/mda-conducts-first-ever-ballistic-missile-intercept-test-from-guam/
Would be a far better use for the £20 odd billion we're throwing away on carbon capture.
Would benefit the economy massively. And make electricity cheaper, not more expensive.
"Russian spies planned to kidnap journalist, trial hears"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gpd8ex4l3o
The excess capacity argument works quite well for solar - which is the cheapest renewable by some distance - but certainly not for offshore wind, which you'd need for those sort of numbers.
It used to get a lot more attention when it was on the BBC. Used to be a staple Saturday afternoon that: after some sporting activity in the morning, I'd spend the afternoon in front of Grandstand with my Dad. The centrepiece of the show would inevitably be a rugby league match. Now for me personally rugby union was more of a highlight, but a league match was a perfectly enjoyable way to spend Saturday afternoon. Much preferable to tennis. Yet 40 years later, it's Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova who get all the attention on Pointless. Ellery Hanley and Martin Offiah never get a look in.
I'd give you some more up to date names but as League has sold it's soul to Murdoch I wouldn't really be able to name any.
*This was true seven years ago. My finger has fallen off the Pointless pulse a little of late.
Just keep a back-up gas power station going instead - plant some trees to make up for it.
NEW THREAD
I'll bet you any money they're using holographic radar principles, at least partially.
Completely different situation to Britain.
On votes at 16, it's maybe a good idea, but should be done with cross-party support. But if not I guess it's just payback.
(I am not a Canadian