To think it’s actually Labour being racist here?

[Mightymucks]

Lots of stories in the press today that Labour are complaining that asking people to show ID when they go to vote is racist and will deter ethnic minorities from voting.

I’ve been reading it and getting the distinct impression that it’s actually Labour being the racists here. People who are engaged with society through work are normally required to have documentation proving who they are. It just seems to give the impression that ethnic minorities are this homogeneous lump who don’t drive or work or travel abroad or get married or pay bills or have a bank account.

It also seems to imply that ethnic minorities aren’t capable of engaging adequately with administrative processes to get this stuff which seems a bit, well, racist. It’s not like Windrush where they’re being asked to deal with 60 year old lost documents on a vast scale. It’s just normal day to day documentation required and I can’t understand why they would think EM won’t have them.

I’ve posted a list of the required ID options below just to give you an idea. It really does strike me as much more racist to assume ethnic minorities won’t be able to fulfill this than it is to ask them for ID.

It’s patronising at the very least.

To vote at a polling station in London Borough Bromley on 3 May 2018 you must take either one of the following:

a passport issued by the United Kingdom, a Commonwealth country or a member state of the European Union
a photocard driving licence (including a provisional licence) issued in the United Kingdom or by a Crown Dependency, or by a member State of the European Union
an electoral identity card issued under section 13C (electoral identity card: Northern Ireland) of the Representation of the People Act 1983
a biometric immigration document issued in the United Kingdom in accordance with regulations made under section 5 of the UK Borders Act 2007
an identity card issued in the European Economic Area
an Oyster 60+ London Pass
a Freedom Pass (London)
a PASS scheme card (national proof of age standards scheme)
Or two of the following (one of which must show your registered address):

a valid bank or building society debit card or credit card
a poll card for the poll
a driving licence (including a provisional licence) which is not in the form of a photocard.
a birth certificate
a marriage or civil partnership certificate
an adoption certificate
a firearms certificate granted under the Firearms Act 1968
the record of a decision on bail made in respect of the voter in accordance with section 5(1) of the Bail Act 1976
a bank or building society cheque book
a mortgage statement dated within 3 months of the date of the poll
a bank or building society statement dated within 3 months of the date of the poll
a credit card statement dated within 3 months of the date of the poll
a utility bill dated within 3 months of the date of the poll
a council tax demand letter or statement dated within 12 months of the date of the poll
a Form P45 or Form P60 dated within 12 months of the date of the poll

It is going to hit disproportionately hard against Caribbean population since we know many of them have already been refused passports due to inability to provide landing cards.

Driving licenses is something you are less likely to have if you are poor, and particularly if you are poor & living in London, so again a lot of the Caribbean population might be expected to suffer disproportionately here. Of course not everybody of Caribbean descent is poor. But statistically, this is a group affected by poverty.

The other documents you mention might be more helpful, but as members of Caribbean population have already been told that these are no use for proving basic right to reside, they might be reasonably suspicious about them providing the right to vote if this measure is rolled out as a part of the Hostile Environment initiative. Remember the man who was refused cancer treatment? The one who couldn't get a passport to travel to his daughter's wedding? The one who was threatened with deportation though his passport quite clearly said Indefinite Right to Remain? They had the kind of documentation you mention & were told it was no good. Why would they trust this to be different?

I also have the Indefinite Right to Remain in my passport, I have an NI card, I have proof of address for the last 25 years, 20 odd years of tax contributions- I have seen nothing that gives me the confidence that the rules can't be changed again so all that is valueless.

So why don't I apply for British citizenship? Why don't I give
up my old citizenship to put all my trust in a government that has already pronounced that it is ok to make people stateless by stripping them of British citizenship? Now, let's think...

Let's be clear over this. We had a choice, dh and I, about which country to settle in. We could have made a valuable contribution to either of our birth countries. We chose the UK, quite a narrow choice as it so happens, as the country to raise our family in, because it seemed at the time, a good society, a trustworthy society, a decent society.

25 years later, that choice is harder to undo: our children have their lives here, they are at an age where you can no longer transfer seamlessly to another culture and another language, leaving here would mean leaving them behind, and ds is not yet old enough to fend for himself.

But at least it was a choice: we have an "other" to go to. The children who were born in this country, to British citizens of a British colony, and who are now denied even the right of a passport, don't have that luxury.