Jacob Reed-Mogg admits that voter ID was an attempt at gerrymandering by the tories!

I'm not sure that exact figures will be easy due to people being turned away outside the voting stations.

But the article is very clear - and quite interesting as in "it backfired" which indicates that there was intention in the first place to favour a conservative vote.

And it backfired on the Tories - in the words of Rees-Mogg:

“We found the people who didn’t have ID were elderly and they by and large voted Conservative"

Ha bloody ha!

I’m no fan of JRM but having read the piece three times I’m not convinced he did say the ID requirement was gerrymandering, rather that attempts at gerrymandering often backfire and the ID thing backfired.

Well the bbc reported that Mogg considered it to be gerrymandering.

We were saying as such on here.

He said:

“Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as I dare say we found by insisting on voter id for elections.”

I do t think there’s much ambiguity there.

👀

Jon Sopel

Don’t want to go over the top, but this is absolutely jaw-dropping. Someone who was in the cabinet when legislation on voter ID was agreed and went through parliament acknowledges it WAS an attempt to gerrymander the elections

Of course, as people on twitter were pointing out, this wasn't gerrymandering, which specifically applies to altering boundaries, but voter suppression.

Perhaps the tories will repeal it in time for the general election...

Goodness.

A journalist formerly with the Sunday Times has just come up with this, From an interview she did with JRM in early 2016

Charlotte Edwardes@chedwardes
1/4 I came across my interview with Jacob Rees-Mogg on 11th Feb, 2016. We talked–inevitably– about Brexit, and within that about immigration and refugees. This quote was filed, but didn’t make the final edit. I thought it was interesting in light of the debate raging today:

2/4 Rees-Mogg said he didn’t believe “broadly” that people come to Britain for benefits. “And I don’t like this view of immigrants. If you meet people that come from foreign countries, they’ve actually done something really rather remarkable.”

3/4 “They’ve left their friends and family, come to a country where they often don’t speak the language not because they are benefit scroungers, but because they want to make a better life. And that’s rather a noble thing to do, isn’t it?”

4/4 “It’s certainly a very Conservative thing to do. So to dismiss them and say ‘Oh well they’re just benefit scroungers, so if we take away a few benefits they won’t come,’ I don’t think treats them properly, but also it won’t be effective. So it’s a bad policy both ways round.”

twitter.com/chedwardes/status/1658079284727087105

Couldn't happen to a nicer government.

Read what he’s reported to have said but I don’t take it as an admission of gerrymandering.

I think you are out voted gsm

Is he trying to use it as an excuse for the Conservatives doing so badly in the council elections?

Oh you are funny, honestly!

So JRM is now synonymous with gerrymandering and filibustering. Not something to be proud of is it.

I’m not concerned about that wwm. As a lawyer I can see the difficulty in interpreting his words as an admission of gerrymandering. If this were the subject of court action, which of course it won’t be, his defence would be that he was comparing the outcome of gerrymandering with the unintended outcome of the ID requirement. We view this in different ways so there’s absolutely no point in arguing about it.

What a burden being a lawyer is😄😄😄

we don't need a lawyer to see straight through him, I am afraid.

Voter suppression

From Bye-Line Times

One in seven people were put off from voting due to England’s strict new voter ID rules in May’s local elections, polling suggests.

Fifteen per cent of those with elections in their area say they were unable to vote or were put off from voting due to the requirement to show photo ID at the polling station – a policy rolled out for the first time earlier this month – according to the new Omnisis polling for Byline Times.

There are 41 million potential voters in English local elections. Assuming a 2019 turnout of 33%, it equates to roughly two million would-be voters being put off or having difficulties with photo ID on May 4th. Coincidentally, two million is the official figure for the number of electors lacking photo ID in Britain.

The numbers put off or unable to vote rises to one in five (22%) among would-be Conservative voters – in an unexpected backlash for the party that introduced the policy.

Own goal of the month for sure. 🥅 ⚽️

Boom boom!

Germanshepherdsmum

I’m not concerned about that wwm. As a lawyer I can see the difficulty in interpreting his words as an admission of gerrymandering. If this were the subject of court action, which of course it won’t be, his defence would be that he was comparing the outcome of gerrymandering with the unintended outcome of the ID requirement. We view this in different ways so there’s absolutely no point in arguing about it.

I mean, it seems VERY clear to me, but I am not a clever lawyer ;)

"Parties that try and gerrymander end up finding that their clever scheme comes back to bite them, as dare I say we found by insisting on voter ID for elections.

"We found the people who didn't have ID were elderly and they by and large voted Conservative, so we made it hard for our own voters and we upset a system that worked perfectly well.'

Whitewavemark2

Well the bbc reported that Mogg considered it to be gerrymandering.

We were saying as such on here.

Well the BBC would wouldn't it. I'd rather listen to JRM delivering it himself. As for gerrymandering, Labour thinking about giving EU citizens, and 16 year old the vote, now that is trying to manipulate the boundaries. No reciprocation fromEU either. No citizenship, no vote.

Extending the franchise is the opposite to voter suppression!

Oh well, if the BBC reported it, then it must be true