Photo ID to vote is a flagrant cladding attack

[Pireck]

You will need photo ID to vote in the general election this year. This won't be a problem for me personally as I have it, but many of the people where I grew up are too poor to drive or travel abroad. Many people in this country don't have valid photo ID, and they shouldn't have to to shell out a significant amount of money they likely don't have in order to cast their vote. An absolutely flagrant attack on the poor and otherwise deprived.

The title is supposed to read classist, not cladding.

This ☝🏻
It's been publicised for a long time that this was being introduced and that people could apply for free ID if they don't have any.
If someone hasn't got time to fill in a short form then chances are they wouldn't find the time to vote either.
Personally I'm very much in favour of ID for voting since I tried to vote in a general election and found someone had already stolen my vote!

This

You say that, but voting is an 'extra task' that they don't have to do. In fact, many even the wealthy and comfortable don't bother.
Article PP posted is about racial discrimination based on photo ID, which is a separate issue but I take umbrage at your insistence that people can't even manage a 5 minute process to get Voter ID online, yet consider voting so important that they will go all the way to the polling station to do it. It doesn't make any sense.

So lets introduced ID to reduce fraud at polling stations, but also freely let people move over to postal voting, where fraud and voting under duress are much more common.

Genius.

Among the Tory's weak-brained schemes, this is definitely a corker

It takes not very long at all to do, was about five minutes if not less when I applied for it.

These feckless and lazy people are the ones nursing your sick relatives in hospital, removing your refuse and picking.your groceries in your supermarkets. They are already overworked and underpaid, and now they have another way their voices are being suppressed. Call them what you like but they make your life comfortable and better and you ignore the fact they will now be less represented in our apparent democracy.

Jesus, could you be any more patronising? Why are you assuming that none of those people drive? That none of them ever go abroad on holiday?

Don't be silly. You can get ID for free so a low income is no barrier to voting. Virtually every country in the world has a national ID card except us. I hope to God the incoming Labour government reintroduce their previous plans for the ID card that was scrapped when the Tories took over. It's the one single reason I might be tempted to vote Labour.

You come across as a bit patronising OP.
Maybe a bit less lady of the manor for the downtrodden, eh.
I’m sure the downtrodden will figure out a way to vote without your intervention.
You remind me of that Trustafarian called Phoebe Rumbelow of the TV rental empire and Just Stop Oil shame who is so desperate to save the working man from Armageddon she keeps preventing people from getting to work or flying off on a 2 week holiday.

As a poor person who works very long hours I feel incredibly patronised by the OP. We are able to sort ourselves out to vote you know. Exactly what do you think we are? 😒

You really have some rose tinted glasses on, not everyone who does these jobs are virtuous poor people who just need a leg up.

Many of them are the types who peddle shite in social media about vaccine conspiracies and won’t vote anyway because the people who are in power are lizards wearing human suits, or whatever.

Anyone who wants to vote and has an ounce of sense will either already have some form of id or will take one of the two free options available to them. Whether or not they work in service jobs in minimal wage or are brain surgeons.

It's just putting needless barriers in front of being able to vote.
Not everyone has access to immediate internet.
Or the know how if they do to "just go online and do it."
OP YANBU

The more tasks there are to perform, the less likely people will be to perform.all of them. Surely it is the interests of society that everyone who can vote and wants to, does. Anything that reduces the number of votes is nothing short of voter suppression.

As I've said, I'm from a poor.backhround. many people where I grew up don't vote at all, which is their choice, but I know of the few that do, many of them don't have ID already. You can't count on everyone one of these people being

A. Aware they'll need ID. Many of them don't even have the Internet at home and so may not be exposed to the information.

And B. Be able to find the time to complete the application for the free ID.

You could then also add that there would be the smaller effect of these applications being lost/ delayed by administrative error, as such things happen in most processes, further reducing the number of people able to acquire photo ID.

This new rule has come in purely to suppress the voices of the downtrodden

But even the "downtrodden" are able to apply for free Voter ID, and it's not as if it's only just been launched; the Electoral Commission have been plugging them since last year's elections

Only too easy, though, for those who can't be bothered to blame someone else for "disadvantaging them"

Folks who empty your bins are very likely to have id as they are council employees and would have gone through an id check and right to work check. The same for carers in addition to a DBS check so again likely to have better id than most. So who in society does that leave who hasn’t got id?

It is surely nor beyond the imagination of most people that a brain surgeon will be more likely to already have photo ID than a person working a minimum wage job, doesn't drive and who does not have access to the Internet at home.

It targets anyone with any kind of disability, additional needs or impairment for whom the added layer of paperwork/computer work is too much.

I don't have photo ID because I haven't needed any for the past x amount of years. I also didn't have the spare £80ish for a passport renewal.

I got the voter ID easily enough. But I know it would have really thrown my dyslexic ADHD husband if he'd have had to do it. Neither of us are lazy or feckless.

Not quite. Many people with a disability have a freedom pass or blue badge. Both of which can be used as id to vote.

OP I don’t disagree, but, I think your time would be far better spent posting “AIBU to remind you how QUICK, EASY AND FREE it is to get your ID to vote” rather than reinforcing the idea that it’s so difficult and expensive.

Accepted forms of ID here.
Why are bus passes for the over 60s acceptable but not students or younger people?
Hmm
https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/voter-id/accepted-forms-photo-id

I bet they have time to book a holiday and apply for a passport or for childcare service or universal credit or credit cards or schools etc.

Absolutely. And of course. I'm just going off my personal experience.

My DH wouldn't have done it as he would have struggled to access it. My very elderly GM would also have no way of doing it without help. I know at least three other adults with additional needs surrounding literacy who would struggle/give up trying to access it.

This doesn’t target the poor it targets the feckless and lazy.

Even if that’s true, should only the fastidious and industrious be able to excercise their democratic rights?

I completely agree with you OP. And as for feckless and lazy, I work quite hard. I also struggle with adhd and my passport has expired. Hopefully I will get it renewed (at a cost) but plenty of people with more chaotic lives than me just won’t get it together. And that’s not a reason to remove their right to vote.

How many people have absolutely zero access to internet though?

👏👏👏

I particularly enjoyed the bit about bin people, and carers 🤣

Gosh @Alltheprettyseahorses how on earth did poor downtrodden pretty little you manage the arduous task of registering with mn?! You must be exhausted!!
Feel need to channel Chandler Bing, could op BE any more condescending?!