Home page The role of postal votes in the party grease machine Buying influence with other people's money Where a political party has held sway in controlling local administrations and also having MPs elected, the current implantation of secret "cabinet government" has established an ideal setting for corruption through the hiding of decisions from the electorate be they voters in local or parliamentary elections. The flow of grants and money between central government and local authorities and thence to contractors supplying services or products provides the perfect basis for buying influence and support. Nurturing societal cowardice Party politics in the United Kingdom, by its very nature, is characterised by an attempt to shape the thinking and behaviour of people within regions where a specific party is prevalent in terms of electoral outcomes. This constant lecturing about what it is to be of this party or another, creates a pressure for people to conform and contibutes to the generation of a societal cowardice under which most people will endure an outrage rather than become conspicuous by rebelling against it; this enforced silence makes cowards of all and such silence, that is lack of questioning and acceptance of the wishes of political parties, is an unacceptable state of affairs. Postal votes Within this increasingly feudal system where small private organizations, political parties, use public money to strengthen their own current and future bids for power sustaining a level of secrecy which envelopes and destroys transparency, the advent of postal voting is just another open invitation to a further undermining of free choice. In immigrant and "loyal party zones" it is easy to use local bullies to collect up voting slips and to have people sign just about anything. People do this either because they believe the agents concerned or else are fearful of the consequences if they do not do as they are told. There is of course another group who simply do not care and will sign and do anything for a peaceful life and to gain some level of acceptance. Postal voting is a way of using activists to mop up votes in marginal constituencies. The potential gain in terms of votes is significant when it is realised that 40% of the population do not bother to vote. Privatization of voting It is to be expected that a party, such as the Labour Party, which is doing so badly in England, has jumped at the device of postal votes to carry out a rearguard action in the constituencies where mopping up marginal votes is so important to them. Outside Wales and Scotland Labour want to shore up their support in the North West and the North East of England as well as Yorkshire and Humberside. This is why in August 2004, the Campaign for the English Regions was keen to give publicity to the fact that the Electoral Commission had given the all-postal referendum in the North East a “clean bill of health”. CFER chair, the Labour Party councillor Phil Davis said: "The Electoral Commission has recognised that the North East is well-placed to hold a secure and efficient all-postal referendum. As the commission found, voters in the North East strongly support holding the referendum on this basis, given their longer experience of its benefits. Once the Government has followed the commission's advice for tightening electoral law, voters in the North West and Yorkshire and the Humber should be able to expect the same choice as voters in the North East - the benefits of postal ballots for individuals and a healthy turnout for democracy, alongside the reassurance of being able to vote in the traditional way at polling stations." But this is just spin for the English, given the broad range of options for corruption, the system remains unacceptable in a society where voting should be based on individual freedom of choice.