WHILE we are distracted by the continuing fall-out from partygate, the scandal of Tory MP Neil Parish allegedly watching porn in the chamber of the Commons and during committee meetings – no doubt he'll claim that he was getting on with the job in hand – and of course the ongoing horror of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Conservatives are getting on with their assault on democracy and the undermining of any institution that might threaten to hold them to account.

The Elections Bill, which was passed on Wednesday night, will make it mandatory for voters to show photographic ID at the polling booth. The Conservative government says the bill will protect the "integrity" of elections and prevent voter fraud.

There is, however, no evidence that impersonation is a serious problem at ballot stations. Figures show that between 2015 and 2019, there were only 88 allegations of in-person voter fraud, out of a total of 153 million votes cast. That included votes in three general elections during the four-year period. The Conservative Elections Bill will introduce a serious obstacle in the way of casting a vote in order to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist.

The effect of this bill – and no doubt its real intention, for all the mealy mouthed and pious excuses of the mendacious Conservatives – will be to make it harder for certain demographic groups which tend not to support the Conservatives to cast a vote. Young people and members of ethnic minorities are more likely to lack the kind of photographic ID demanded by the new legislation. The Tories have clearly taken a leaf out of the voter suppression playbook of the US Republicans.

The Electoral Reform Society has warned that the ID measures, which will cost £20 million per election to implement, could disenfranchise the 3.5 million people in the UK who lack the ID required.  According to the British Government’s own figures, as many as one in 10 people do not have an up-to-date, recognisable photo ID.

That is all shocking enough. However, an even more alarming measure is contained in the new bill. The bill also strips the Electoral Commission of its independence and places it under the control of a government minister. The minister for the Cabinet Office will now have the unilateral power to define what campaigning is and to determine which groups can or cannot engage in the democratic process by campaigning or donating.

The bill gives the minister the power to criminalise groups and individuals for actions undertaken up to a year before an election that she or he retroactively deems to be campaigning. Former Electoral Commissioner David Howarth has described this draconian measure as "something straight out of Putin's playbook".

Critics of the new legislation have pointed out that it gives British Government ministers the ability to shape how electoral law is applied to them and their political competitors, giving the governing party a significant and unfair advantage.

While the Conservatives get on with their assault on democratic safeguards, introduce despicable and inhumane proposals to deport asylum seekers to a Central African dictatorship, clamp down on the right to protest and defend the law-breaking of Boris Johnson, much of the anti-independence Scottish media continues its parochial fixation on delays in introducing new ferries.

They are so obsessed with fending off the threat of independence that they do not care about the character of the increasingly authoritarian and undemocratic UK that they insist Scotland must remain a part of.

This piece is an extract from today’s REAL Scottish Politics newsletter, which is emailed out at 7pm every weekday with a round-up of the day's top stories and exclusive analysis from the Wee Ginger Dug.

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