From: Andrew Lye. 58 Cambrian Road, Neyland, Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire. SA73 1ST
Email: a.c.lye@btopenworld.com
Tele: 01646-601445/07799-778501
Dear Sir,
The Queen’s Speech includes proposed legislation requiring voters to show Photo ID at UK Parliamentary elections. The Government alleges that there is large-scale electoral fraud. The evidence is clearly to the opposite. The Electoral Commission reports that in 2019, the police dealt with 595 cases. This included 164 cases involving the December 2019 General Election. Altogether, of the 595 cases, 4 led to a conviction and 2 individuals were given a police caution.
Welsh Liberal Democrats Leader, Jane Dodds MS has described it as “Illiberal, unnecessary and unjust. Voting is a right that we all enjoy and the government is seeking to undermine that by introducing new obstacles which will inevitably drive turnout down”.
The evidence is there to show that there is NOT wide spread voting fraud. All this proposal will do is ensure that another 3.5 million people will be unable to vote as they have no photo ID. Rather than creating problems that do not exist, the government should focus on the real issues, including resolving the problem of the 9 million people missing from the electoral roll and the glaring loopholes in lobbying laws.
A main issue that the Queen’s Speech failed to mention was the ever growing problem of social care. When Boris became PM in 2019, he said he had a “clear plan” to fix the system. However, measures to address social care funding were not among the 30 Bills. It did confirm that proposals would be brought forward, later this year.
So once more, despite his promise of a “clear plan”, he is kicking the social care can further down the road and how can we be certain that we will know these proposals by Christmas 2021? Yet the Government is proposing to disenfranchise up to 3.5m voters. You can see where their priorities lie and this becomes yet another Bill that should not go on the statute book.
Yours faithfully,
Andrew C. Lye
Pembrokeshire Liberal Democrats
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