More on this (unfortunately behind the FT paywall).
Gerrymandering.
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I don’t know about that. The awful cost of living crisis might well prove a huge stimulus to want to vote.
It depends upon how much publicity is given to his free voter card scheme.
Even if publicity is given the scheme might end up overwhelmed - data from 2011 (couldn’t find anything more recent on a quick search) says only about 76% UK residents hold a passport. 2020 figures put the number with a driving licence licence at 80% - but even at that level 20% of the 52,383,965 18 year olds and above is over 10,000,000 million people who would potentially need to avail themselves of photographic voter ID.
Also, I’m surprised the right wing hasn’t called it out as “ID card by stealth”.
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Because it disenfranchises people. Literally.
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Then you add this into the mix
The Electoral Commission has admitted it is “concerned” about its independence after the government passed a new law to place it under ministerial control.
Changes to the Elections Bill, which passed the House of Lords on Wednesday night, will hand the government significant powers to direct the election watchdog’s priorities.
Critics say the changes represent a grave threat to free and fair elections – and amount to an “authoritarian” power grab that will let ministers shape how electoral law applies to political opponents and their own party.
Under the legislation, the secretary of state will be able to issue a “statement of purpose” that directs the Commission’s priorities. It will also automatically add a government minister to the committee that oversees and scrutinises the work of the Commission.
Not so " thin " end of the wedge
Andy
If I am getting boring please tell me, but here is another
Police and Crime Commissioner has been caught breaking a 30mph limit five times within a 12-week period - including twice outside a primary school.
Caroline Henry, who is the wife of Tory Broxtowe MP Darren Henry, was driving over the speed limit in a blue Mercedes and a silver Lexus with a personalised number plate in 30mph zones at four locations in March, May and June last year.
The PCC admitted the offences, including two committed on consecutive days, at a previous hearing in February at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court.
Give in
Andy
And she’s not disqualified because…?
It’s depressing but more on the sort of nation that we seem to have become - and it’s not the government per se this time, more the general atmosphere that is generated by policies such as the “Hostile Environment”
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Mr Butcher
If it was me or you we would have had the book thrown at us.
I believe she is attending a speed awareness course.
Andy
That’s not normally available to repeat offenders 
People with a ‘public profile’ often receive different treatment to the rest of us, Katie Price is a prime example -
Other European countries have national ID cards, but of course Westminster voted against that .
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Which is so silly - there are loads of cards about eg those age cards for buying alcohol etc. If there was a system of free ID cards you could have from 10 or 12 say, all of those other ways of proving identity age etc would be unnecessary.
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Or at the very least passport cards like Ireland, the US (although theirs seems to be pretty useless) and other places have, which can act as ID and travel document but in a form that goes into your purse/wallet, although that obviously means paying for the passport first. The next logical step is to digitise these things onto phones so a good bridging gap would be to create a passport card then since Apple and Google are currently working with a few countries on pilot schemes to digitise driving licenses on to the wallet apps, the next step would be digitising the passport cards too. Obviously there’s the issue of stamps which is presumably why passport books are still around, but given the way things are going it seems unlikely physical stamps will be around too much longer anyway.
This however doesn’t stop the disfranchisement of those that don’t have, don’t need, or can’t afford a passport.
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Yes, exactly, and the fact that passports are eye wateringly expensive too makes it worse.
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I don’t know about eye-wateringly, set in the context of a foreign holiday they are certainly are not the largest expense.
But if you are on Universal Credit it is unlikely that you can afford either the foreign holiday or the £75 for a passport.
Which is why the CNI is so good, it is free and you can travel throughout the EU with it.
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Yeah, we have this irrational thing about ID cards in the UK.
My mother and father are not on the ‘poor’ scale, they dont claim any benefits other than their pensions, but neither of them now have a passport (their travelling days long being over), my mother doesnt have a driving licence and my father’s licence is still a paper version.
Neither have any photo ID and are not at all computer literate - they dont even have mobile phones.
As it stands, they cannot vote.
Tory Democracy - dont you just love it?