Electoral Fraud

Electoral fraud is as old as the hills. And, of course, Baroness Warsi or anyone else is quite right to draw attention to specific instances of it.

But it was David Cameron whose vehicles toured Ealing Southall blasting out in Asian languages that Hindu, Muslim and Sikh festivals would be made public holidays under the Tories. It was his “Quality of Life Commission” (don’t laugh, it’s real) that then proposed giving the power to decide these things to “local community leaders”. What else would those figures be given the power to decide in return for filling in every postal voting form in their households in the Bullingdon Boys’ interest, and making sure that all their mates did likewise?

To the statelets thus created – little Caliphates, little Hindutvas, little Khalistans, and so on – people minded to live in such places would flock from the ends of the earth, entrenching the situation for ever. Labour Councillors and activists fairly regularly defect to the Conservative Party on frankly communal grounds and are always welcomed with open arms. The 2010 candidate at Ealing Southall was one such.

All well worth considering when someone like David Starkey uses something like the Question Time panel to denounce another party, not necessarily unfairly, for having become “sectarian”.

And let’s not even start about the Lib Dems, who will have approved in advance every speech delivered at the conference of the Conservative Party, which had approved in advance every speech delivered at the conference of the Lib Dems. Now, that’s what I call “electoral fraud”.