The electoral trends might be going the Conservatives' way, but Alexander wants to sew things up. So the boundaries of constituencies are going to be re-drawn, based on electoral registers which, because the onus has, for several years, been placed on individuals, rather than households to register, have disenfranchised many people. It would be entirely possible to register people automatically (we do it with National Insurance) and for changes of address to be registered automatically. It would also be possible to end the anachronistic practice of holding elections on Thursdays ; to hold them over two or three days ; or to make postal voting easier. (I will leave other important matters, suvh as the influence of money, 'dirty' or otherwise, on elections, and the inability of the Electoral Commission to deal with this threat, to future blogposts. There are still more important related matters, such as the draconian restrictions on the right to protest imposed since March 2020, about which I intend to write later).
As for the electoral system (or first-past-the-post), please don't get me started. However, rest assured: Alexander is on the case. The only proportional elements in English elections (as distinct from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, where they are permitted to be more enlightened), which is in the mayoral elections, is about to be snuffed out. This is more or less an overt admission by Alexander that the Conservatives favour FPTP because it favours them. Which is not surprising. What is, however, surprising is the tenacity with which so many die-hards in the Labour Party have, for so may years, set themselves against PR. It is almost as if there were a deep desire for self-defeat, as long as ideological purity could be maintained. (This observation applies to all factions of the party: old Right. soft Left, Blairites, and Corbynites). The mood in the Labour Party may now be changing, although somewhat too late.
However, the most egregious example of this desire to thwart the democratic process lies in the government's plans to make mandatory personal photographic identification before accessing the ballot. There is no justification whatsoever for this: there were precisely four cases of voter fraud at the 2019 election. (On the contrary, such a 'reform' poses the distinct danger of disenfranchising the young, the poor and people of colour, many of whom have good reason to be suspicious of authority.) When asked about the lack of rationale for this 'reform' on 'The World at One' this week, the Leader of the House, Jacob Rees-Mogg, asserted that voter fraud might possibly become a problem in the future, so it would be a good idea to take precautions against it. I suppose that if you have enough confidence you can feel entitled to utter any nonsense which comes into your head. But I have to ask: what exactly was the government doing when there were four cases of coronavirus in this country, and when it had time to do something ? Was it swinging into action ? Was it in emergency mode ? Or what is it doing about Northern Ireland, which just might become a problem again ? I only ask.