the first referendum

tony1

Well-Known Member
I heard a story told at my shooting range by a older member about the first referendum way back in the 70s.
he claimed that the voting slips where collected uncounted and taken to the bank of England and put in the old money burning furnace.
It was also suggested that the people who collected and transferred the voting slips were required to sign the official secrets act .

my problem is with all the disinformation and down right lies we have been feed this time around whether he is telling the facts as he believes them or a good tongue in cheek story?
 
Well it's a very serious problem actually: if no-one trusts any of the facts, views, expert opinions etc, and then also don't trust that the results will be counted fairly because it's all rigged, then you have a breakdown of trust that's so huge that it's difficult to see how to climb out of it. Of course you can overcome this with an application of critical judgement and an understanding that it's all about balancing risk and that for most questions there are only likely scenarios, not definitive answers.

And as to conspiracies around falsifying the vote, I'd want to see some real evidence for something of that magnitude. For all its' shortcomings, British democracy seems to be pretty much free of that sort of thing.
 
And as to conspiracies around falsifying the vote, I'd want to see some real evidence for something of that magnitude

Evidence that the perpetrators would go to great lengths to ensure you never did see it, of course. I'm no fan of conspiracy theories, but given the lies, cheats and outright corruption we've seen stem from Westminster over the last few years I have absolutely NO faith in any British politician these days. In fact, I think the mere desire to be a politician should automatically bar anyone from actually becoming one
 
Well all the polling stations, returning officers etc are volunteers, not actually full-time politicians. That sort of decentralisation makes it very hard to commit any serious fraud. You'd have to convince a LOT of people to do it, and they tend to be the sorts of people who wouldn't be open to the suggestions. Really earnest people who do it because they believe in it.
 
I absolutely agree. If there is any corruption involved, then it goes far beyond what actually happens at the polling stations. But where power of this magnitude is concerned, and the stakes involved in Referendums such as this one, it really wouldn't surprise me any longer
 
If there are any shenanigans to be made, it will be out of sight of the volunteers, (who actually get paid, my missus is doing her second stint this time around),the comment above about the votes going into the furnace, would be out of sight & mind of polling staff, but those who count the votes would know straight away if the results looked a bit cock eyed.
 
Who knows" after the fiasco of the computers going down I would not trust them as far as I could throw them.
 
Well all the polling stations, returning officers etc are volunteers, not actually full-time politicians. That sort of decentralisation makes it very hard to commit any serious fraud. You'd have to convince a LOT of people to do it, and they tend to be the sorts of people who wouldn't be open to the suggestions. Really earnest people who do it because they believe in it.
From my experience, most of the returning officers are council workers, who get paid for the day, but I don,t believe the conspiracy theory, the official secrets act, would hardly prevent people from leaking such information, most contractors to the mod sign it, I have twice.
 
Well all the polling stations, returning officers etc are volunteers, not actually full-time politicians. That sort of decentralisation makes it very hard to commit any serious fraud. You'd have to convince a LOT of people to do it, and they tend to be the sorts of people who wouldn't be open to the suggestions. Really earnest people who do it because they believe in it.

Returning officers and polling station attendants are all council employees (at least in Scotland anyway)
 
I've been a....er 'Civil Servant' in various guises - I could elaborate but would have to do you in with my nerve gas fountain pen - and worked in the 'security' thingy stuff.

Having seen the rigmarole involved in a. getting a stapler, b. getting staples, c. getting staples to match the stapler I remain in the sad position of relishing a good conspiracy theory as much as anyone, but being certain that Government is simply to collectively inept to a. successfully plan, b. execute and c. keep a lid on anything.

And if you look at how gullible a sizeable proportion of the population is - why even bother? Simply spin it.
 
I'm afraid the opportunity for electoral fraud is huge and has been for some time. I'm amazed at how short some people's memory's actually are: Judge slates 'banana republic' postal voting system | UK news | The Guardian

A relative, who has been intimately involved with numerous elections, has often described how it is possible to commit voting fraud on a large scale - we were talking about it only last night. The trick is to make sure that the number of dodgy votes does not significantly exceed the average return, thereby avoiding unwanted attention.

I can certainly recall posters in one part of the UK urging the local populace to "Vote Early & Vote Often!"
 
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