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Scandal of British soldiers in Iraq robbed of their General Election vote -while they are explaining to Iraqi people the meaning of Democracy. * Daily Mail Political Correspondent Graeme Wilson Friday, April 15, 2005 Delays rob
Thousands of a say in the election * Tens of thousands of service personnel have been denied their right to vote in the General Election. They have risked their
lives in Iraq and Afghanistan, but were disenfranchised by a controversial new
system for registering service voters. Delays by the Ministry
of Defence meant many received leaflets explaining the system only a day or two
before the March 11 deadline to register to vote this year. The impact is
graphically illustrated by figures from the voting watchdog, the Electoral Commission. They reveal there were 140,000
service voters registered in England and Wales in 2002. A year later, however,
the figure had slumped to 49,000. Conservatives last night
accused Labour of staggering complacency for brushing aside repeated warnings
about the crisis. They claimed ministers
failed to act because members of the Armed Forces are likely to vote against
Labour in protest at the spin, which took Britain to war in Iraq. There is deep resentment about the cull of
famous regiments. Conservative defence
spokesman Andrew Robathan visited Iraq in January and was shocked to find four
out of five troops he met had not registered to vote. ‘This is just another
weapon for the Labour Party to deny the vote to Service voters, many of whom
will probably be Conservative supporters,’ he said. IN the past, soldiers
simply registered as a Service voter when they joined up and remained on the
register until they left. Under the new system
introduced in 2001, however, they have to re-register as a Service voter every
year or lose their vote - a logistical nightmare when half the Army is
currently serving overseas. They can
also using the normal registration system for the rest of the population. However, the Ministry of
Defence failed to publicise the changes -meaning thousands of Service personnel
were unaware they had to register this year if they wanted to vote. There are currently just over 202,000 Service personnel
of whom 195,000 are over 18 and
eligible to vote. The rule changes have also caught out military
personnel who appoint their parents or other close relatives to vote for them
by proxy -an option which many prefer because of unpredictable foreign travel. Forms appointing proxy
voters now have to be filled out every year, but letters explaining the change
were sent by local authorities to the last military base where the voter was
known to live -even though such addresses could be years out of date. Concerns about the
system were raised last autumn but the MoD did not launch an ‘awareness
campaign’ until January 28-2005. At its core was a
leaflet-produced by the Electoral Commission -which told servicemen and women
how to register. The Commission delivered
110,000 leaflets to the MoD on February 4.
A spokesman said: ‘We understand that they would be turned round and
sent out within a few days. However,
the MoD admitted yesterday it was another two weeks before all the leaflets had
been despatched. -and it can take up to two weeks for mail to reach troops in
Iraq and Afghanistan. The
Government tried to play down the importance of the leaflets yesterday, with the MoD insisting it
was only ‘one part of a wider awareness campaign’, which included adverts on
forces broadcasting. However,
the Electoral Commission disagreed. ‘The
leaflet was one of the key elements of the campaign,’ said a spokesman. Senior Tory backbencher Peter Viggers, the Electoral Commission’s official representative in the Commons, revealed yesterday that there were 4,700 Service voters registered in his Gosport constituency in 2000. By last year, the figure had plummeted to 470. A similar fall was discovered by Tory MP for Chichester Andrew Tyrie, who found that the number of service voters in his constituency had fallen from 483 to 22 over the last five years. Last night the mother of an RAF flight engineer serving in the Gulf told the Daily Mail how he had phoned her in anger at the poll shambles. He said: “Mum,
I was ordered to go and fight an illegal war and put my life on the line on a
daily basis, and now I can’t even vote against the Government that sent me.” ‘He would have voted Tory.’ And an Army sergeant just returned to Germany after a tour
in Iraq said that he had no time to fill in his form when it arrived. ‘there were bombs and shootings going
off. It was exhausting. When I got
back here a few weeks ago it was too late. I would have voted Conservative. - certainly not Labour. That probably goes for most of the forces.’ The
revelations come amid the growing scandal over postal vote fraud, which already
has led to the conviction of a string of Labour councillors. The Tories last night claimed Labour has a track record of
trying to prevent likely Conservatives from voting. They
pointed to the Government’s drive to cut the number of years a British citizen
can live abroad and still register to vote from 20 to 15. Conservatives claim the move discriminates against their supporters among more than two million expats. [Font altered-bolding &
underlining used-comments in brackets] APRIL/05 * * [Well! the only way to redress the wrong done to the Armed Forces abroad is for a newspaper to arrange for an Independent body to which the many voters who had not considered voting or have never voted to arrange for them to vote one for one for those cheated out of their vote abroad in Iraq, Afghanistan the Balkans and elsewhere. A disenfranchised Serviceman abroad would give his preference to the Independent body appointed by the newspaper- with his political party choice and receive in turn a number and they would at the same take up details of those who have contacted them who now intend to vote in order to redress the balance of the injustice done to the troops abroad. The person who has decided to vote would have to be on the register. It would be taken on trust that the particular individual had not previously intended to vote. The details of the proxy voter -as such -would not be given out by the independent body appointed by the newspaper It would simply be a question of a number to each coupling. The disenfranchised voter would have the satisfaction that though he could not vote at least someone who had not considered voting would now do so to redress the wrong. Possibly it could be made much simpler by the newspaper simply asking those who have not voted over the last few elections to for once consider the gross injustice done to our brave servicemen and women risking their lives abroad and ask the person concerned to simply give the constituency in which they will vote. As there are election statistics available for each polling area it should be possible to see after the election whether indeed the promises were fulfilled. The result of this exercise
in justice will be that more citizens will become voters, which is good for
democracy at the same time a great wrong will be rectified. * In the words of a President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) ‘A man who is good enough to
shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal
afterwards. More than that no man is
entitled to, and less than that no man shall have.’ (Speech at Springfield , Illinois, 4th June 1903.) We ask Tony Blair to answer the charge against him by quoting a further saying of the President. ‘No man is justified in doing
evil on the ground of expediency’ * No serviceman or women
should be deprived of their right to vote.
Their pay book is their authority and the rest should be left to the unit
commanders and the Ministry of Defence to ensure that our troops are not having
to consider such matters when their prime responsibility is to defend our
country. * * * APRIL/05 Daily MailCOMMENT So it comes to this: any Tom Dick or Harry in Britain can get hold of illicit postal votes by the bucketful, but our soldiers have been cynically dis enfranchised. Forget
that they are prepared to risk their lives in the cause of bringing democracy
to Third World dictatorships. Forget
that some have been wounded in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans and other
theatres of war and that many have seen their comrades killed. The
Government so blithely sends them into action at the drop of a hat - in one
case on the basis of a pack of lies - is denying tens of thousands of them the
chance to vote, because of the gross incompetence of a new registration system. The
smell of something rotten is overpowering.
Was this shambles just the result of an official blunder? Or is it another squalid New Labour
manoeuvre to rig the results on May 5 by ensuring that members of the military-many
of whom have seen their regiments destroyed and might be presumed to be voting
Conservative -don’t get near a ballot paper? This
Government doesn’t deserve the benefit of the doubt. It is frantically
promoting a postal voting system elsewhere in Britain that it knows is wide
open to fraud that it has been forced to announce major changes - but only when
the election is safely out of the way. In
the meantime, it expects to benefit from a postal vote fiasco that in the words
of Judge Richard Mawrey is reminiscent of a ‘banana republic’. But
then New Labour will do anything to hang on to power, even if it means leaving
the door wide open to election crooks and dragging the integrity of our
democratic process into the gutter. * * * APRIL/05
* * * * 13th October,2007
So You Want Out Of The EU
THEN WHY NOT SIGN THE RENUNCIATION of EU CITIZENSHIP http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Optout Details from petition creator With the signing of the Maastricht Treaty the people of Britain were given DUAL CITIZENSHIP -both EUROPEAN and BRITISH The extra tier of citizenship was thrust upon the people without their consent -and in many cases knowledge. The PEOPLE of GREAT BRITAIN should be allowed the option of opting out of the EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP if they so wish. The GOVERNMENT will then be able to provide those who have opted out with BRITISH DOCUMENTATION -only such as British (not EU) passports, driving licences and other national documents. EU laws will also NOT APPLY to those who HAVE OPTED OUT OF EUROPEAN CITIZENSHIP * *
* [Latest Addition - June07] * * *
*
Daniel Hannan - Forming an OPPOSITION to the EU
* GORDON BROWN WANTS TRUST-BUT WHY WON'T HE TRUST YOU? * 67% want powers back from EU-ICM poll-June 21-2007-95% of British people want a REFERENDUM * FOR A REFERENDUM SIGN TODAY ON LINE * July 18-2007 ALSO JOIN THE 10 DOWNING STREET PROTEST Readers can add their support to the growing clamour for a REFERENDUM on the '"REFORM TREATY" by signing up to a 10 Downing Street 0n-line petition http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/EU-treaty-NON/
The Petition reads as follows: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to guarantee that the British people will be permitted a binding REFERENDUM on any and all attempts to resurrect the EU " CONSTITUTION" (and any or all of its content) regardless of nomenclature." Deadline for the PETITION is 31st January,2008 Eurofacts 27th July 2007. * 'The Spirit of England' by In London on St.George's Day -1953 *
VOTE -2007
WITH THE ONLY PARTY WITH A MANDATE TO SET YOU FREE
THE UK INDEPENDENCE PARTY THE QUESTION THAT THE VOTER MUST ANSWER
‘DO YOU WISH TO BE GOVERNED BY YOUR OWN PEOPLE, LAW AND CUSTOM OR BY THE CORRUPT ,EXPENSIVE UNACCOUNTABLE AND CORRUPT ALIEN BUSYBODY BRUSSELS’
-SIMPLE IS IT NOT?
TO RECLAIM YOUR DEMOCRACY DON'T VOTE FOR THE TRIPARTITE PARTIES IN WESTMINSTER BUT SMALL PARTIES THAT SPEAK THEIR MINDS WITHOUT SPIN AND LIES. *
ONLY WILL BRING DEMOCRACY BACK TO THE ENGLISH PEOPLE *
SCOTLAND -ITS PARLIAMENT -WALES-ITS ASSEMBLY-ENGLAND-STILL AWAITS ITS PARLIAMENT-WHY?
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* [All underlined words have a separate bulletin] ADDED NOV 1-2015
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