Westminster Politics

Buster15 said:
Wreaked havoc with the armed forces when he was Secretary of State for Defence.
How the hell did he get knighted?
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Word is he has something on Boris, Sunak etc. which is almost like his bargaining chip when angling for cabinet positions.

To be honest, with everything that has come out about his conduct, I wouldn't be in the least bit surprised if this was true. Even not so Priti Patel got away with bullying.
 
Paul the Wolf said:
I realise the topic of debate is about voter fraud but in general , ID cards serve other purposes as well. The government have spent much bigger amounts of money on much more wasteful things.

I don't agree with what the government laid out in that article but if everyone had a free ID everyone would be equal and end the debate which is a non-issue elsewhere in Europe.
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I don't get the big deal about them either. They're used here for everything like getting your Covid booster to immigration status, access to benefits (not that they're much of a thing here) etc...It was free though at least, but it's clearly more than the cost in the UK, with the weird view it somehow encroaches on your civil liberties.
 
I really don't understand the issue with voter ID. It's been used in parts of the UK for decades already.

I'm in Northern Ireland, am now 41 and had to show ID in every election since I turned 18 in 1999. Nev er had an issue, never been an issue. The NI Government, for all their faults issue a free voter ID card if you don't have a passport/drivers licence or any of the other needed IDs. I don't know how it is voter suppression as passport and even a provisional licence are accessable by anyone. Just issue a free voter ID like NI if need be and no issues.
 
jasT1981 said:
I really don't understand the issue with voter ID. It's been used in parts of the UK for decades already.

I'm in Northern Ireland, am now 41 and had to show ID in every election since I turned 18 in 1999. Nev er had an issue, never been an issue. The NI Government, for all their faults issue a free voter ID card if you don't have a passport/drivers licence or any of the other needed IDs. I don't know how it is voter suppression as passport and even a provisional licence are accessable by anyone. Just issue a free voter ID like NI if need be and no issues.
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The uk government will not.
 
Paul the Wolf said:
I realise the topic of debate is about voter fraud but in general , ID cards serve other purposes as well. The government have spent much bigger amounts of money on much more wasteful things.

I don't agree with what the government laid out in that article but if everyone had a free ID everyone would be equal and end the debate which is a non-issue elsewhere in Europe.
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Surely the whole point is that the UK government won't hand out the correct ID to everyone eligible?
 
jasT1981 said:
I really don't understand the issue with voter ID. It's been used in parts of the UK for decades already.

I'm in Northern Ireland, am now 41 and had to show ID in every election since I turned 18 in 1999. Nev er had an issue, never been an issue. The NI Government, for all their faults issue a free voter ID card if you don't have a passport/drivers licence or any of the other needed IDs. I don't know how it is voter suppression as passport and even a provisional licence are accessable by anyone. Just issue a free voter ID like NI if need be and no issues.
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Not in general, but the way it's being implemented by the Tories is so outrageously blatant, eg accepting an old person's railcard, but not a young person's equivalent. People would be taking the piss about it if it was happening in Turkey or South Africa etc...How many 18 year olds have passports or driving licenses? They both cost a bomb, particularly the latter with the lessons and test.
 
horsechoker said:
I'm jealous of confident people, I'm always worried about not being smart enough to voice my opinions on certain issues yet here we have a very confident but dumb person just out there in a top role in an albeit minor party spouting this kind of crap with no fear.
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Once national discourse turns to bald men you'll have your time in the sun.
 
sun_tzu said:
My wife got her student card with a chinese passport so technically I think at least those can be got with non UK government ID

And I just checked you can get a rail card with an international passport (i,e. not uk gov id) as well

That would I suspect be the reason they were not included though it would I think be relatively simple to mark on them if it was obtained with valid UK ID
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Sure but the ID is cross referenced against voter data, so it's not meant to be proof of citizenship and the list allows, for instance, oap travel cards but not young person's.
 
Maagge said:
Surely the whole point is that the UK government won't hand out the correct ID to everyone eligible?
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According to that article, yes.

But if everyone in the UK was entitled to a free ID card then there wouldn't be such a problem. There's been a reluctance for decades to have any form of ID card in the UK. Free or not.
 
Paul the Wolf said:
According to that article, yes.

But if everyone in the UK was entitled to a free ID card then there wouldn't be such a problem. There's been a reluctance for decades to have any form of ID card in the UK. Free or not.
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Ah right. I get what you mean now, I thought you were talking about the UK being opposed to showing IDs when voting and not a more general opposition to some kind of national ID.

I'm quite happy to have an ID I can use for almost anything handed out to me for free.
 
Jippy said:
I don't get the big deal about them either. They're used here for everything like getting your Covid booster to immigration status, access to benefits (not that they're much of a thing here) etc...It was free though at least, but it's clearly more than the cost in the UK, with the weird view it somehow encroaches on your civil liberties.
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I welcome having a French ID card. They're not compulsory, they're free and last 15 years. They can even act as cheque guarantee cards. But for me the most important is they are free passports to the rest of the EU.

It's academic now with the UK having left the EU but they could have had ID cards for travel inside the EU.
 
Nobody was arguing specifically about carrying ID, that was a straw man argument which took us away from the original point which was (to clarify again) that the government today issued the list of all forms of acceptable voter ID and pretty much all of them are skewed towards their own voter base. Why are various types of over 60's travel cards acceptable for instance but not student ID cards, under 60's oyster cards or young person's railcards?

Basically, if you are young and don't have a passport or driving licence you won't be able to vote. I'm not young but if I didn't have a passport, I wouldn't be able to vote either according to those rules so how many people do you think this might affect?

There has been talk of local councils giving out some kind of free ID to people who need them but as yet no money for such a scheme, no specifics and very little time left to implement it.
 
sun_tzu said:
I presume the ones they accept is partially because you have to show other government approved I'd to get them?

Is there any I'd that younger people have to show government I'd to get?

Young persons rail card? Not sure of that has a photo on it?

What % of the population don't have a passport or drivers licence ...I guess its not huge but also not insignifigant
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For adults, 9 million people don't have a passport and 13 million do not have a driving licence.

Councils are meant to distribute free voting ID but people have to apply, and in reality won't.

Also this is basically a poll tax to vote in a cost of living crisis.
 
Frosty said:
For adults, 9 million people don't have a passport and 13 million do not have a driving licence.

Councils are meant to distribute free voting ID but people have to apply, and in reality won't.

Also this is basically a poll tax to vote in a cost of living crisis.
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Free ID cards for everyone is the answer. Whether voter fraud is a problem or not they would be good for many things.
 
The Conservative MP Mark Francois has said that, when he used the word “Japs” in the Commons yesterday, he did not mean to cause offence, and was just trying to shorten a lengthy question.
In a statement responding to criticism of what he said from Labour, Francois also said he was complimenting the Japanese. He said:

I meant absolutely no disrespect or offence to anyone by using the phrase ‘Japs’ during defence questions in the House of Commons yesterday. I merely used it as an abbreviation for Japanese as I had, by then, been asking an admittedly rather wordy question, about naval shipbuilding.

or as Mark Francois really says:

I mnt abs no dis or off to any. I only use abbs.
 
Paul the Wolf said:
The Conservative MP Mark Francois has said that, when he used the word “Japs” in the Commons yesterday, he did not mean to cause offence, and was just trying to shorten a lengthy question.
In a statement responding to criticism of what he said from Labour, Francois also said he was complimenting the Japanese. He said:

I meant absolutely no disrespect or offence to anyone by using the phrase ‘Japs’ during defence questions in the House of Commons yesterday. I merely used it as an abbreviation for Japanese as I had, by then, been asking an admittedly rather wordy question, about naval shipbuilding.

or as Mark Francois really says:

I mnt abs no dis or off to any. I only use abbs.
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Something something ITS SHORT FOR PAKISTANI! something.
 
University staff to stage ‘biggest ever’ strikes this month as 70,000 walk out

Walk-outs will be ‘on a scale never seen before’ and could impact 2.5 million students, union says
 
Drifter said:
University staff to stage ‘biggest ever’ strikes this month as 70,000 walk out

Walk-outs will be ‘on a scale never seen before’ and could impact 2.5 million students, union says
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That will last well into next year from the plans UCU has.

Pension changes were forced through this/last year costing members well over a third of their pension, all for the pension fund to announce the fund was in surplus. Oh well.
 
TheGame said:
Definitely in my list of most cnutish MPs.

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Yep, he should have bloody used the goddamn modern derogative term for Japanese people. Is it too much to ask to keep up with modern ways of bashing other nationalities?
 
Frosty said:
For adults, 9 million people don't have a passport and 13 million do not have a driving licence.

Councils are meant to distribute free voting ID but people have to apply, and in reality won't.

Also this is basically a poll tax to vote in a cost of living crisis.
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Looking around I found a figure of around 8 million who have neither

Free but compulsory I'd cards would see. Logical (along with secure online voting options)
 
Jericholyte2 said:




Anyone fancy arguing we're not 'flirting' with fascism (to put it mildly)?
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What's funny is that if we want to get rid of the government responsible for this descent into fascism we need to vote for a party whose leader wants even tougher sentences for protestors.
 
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFfuNKCt/

Matty Hancock giving 45 percent of his I'm a celeb money to charity. Great man. I can't wait to vote tory again to get more upstanding citizens like him in power.

We could all learn a lot from him and his.
 
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