Why is the Government trying to fix a problem that doesn’t exist?
ASuitable Boy, the epic Indian novel by Vikram Seth, builds up to an election towards the end, the first vote held under a universal franchise. The vote is complicated by the fact that millions of India’s women observed strict purdah rules and only went out if covered head to foot. In one scene, a burkaclad woman arrives to vote. The local presiding officer demands her husband’s name and she gives it. “You have four children, don’t you?” he asks. “Yes, yes, yes,” she said. “Out!” he cries, because “he had already ascertained that the real woman in question had two children”.
Britain, thankfully, suffers from very little electoral fraud. There was just one conviction for the offence in 2017 and again in 2018. No doubt there is much that goes unreported, but there is not, as far as we know, a systemic problem involving people posing as people they are not. The fraud scandals that have occurred involve postal ballots, not false identities.
So why does the Government want to introduce mandatory voter identification checks at polling stations? Labour claims this is about suppression of poor and minority voters. That is doubtful. The requirement would merely bring regulations into line with modern international standards – and with post office parcel collection rules, for that matter. So perhaps a measure like this is inevitable. But IDS will add hassle to voting.
Until there is more evidence of a problem, we should refrain from “fixing” it.
Poor old Neil Woodford has wound up his fund management business. He and his backers might at least take comfort from the fact that this isn’t the most embarrassing incident involving City chums making failed bets on one another in recent years.
That honour must go to Nathaniel Rothschild’s purchase of Bumi, an Indonesian mining company riddled with what they call “financial irregularities”. Wowed by his famous name, finance veterans handed the young Baron Rothschild a $1billion blank cheque and watched him pour the money down the drain.
The City might be full of hard-bitten, experienced investors, but many of them are just as liable to go ga-ga over an industry celebrity as any teen boyband fan. Sticking your clients’ money in an index fund, on the other hand, is boring and reliable. Where’s the fun in that?