It is a fact that vote-rigging does happen. In the 1960 USA Presidential election, the Republican candidate, Richard Nixon, knew the declaration of Jack Kennedy as winner had been achieved through vote rigging by Mayor Daley of Chicago. But, although he knew this, he hesitated to say so, because of the extreme seriousness of challenging the result. In the 2000 USA Presidential election, it was the Democratic candidate, Al Gore, who knew he had been robbed. He knew the Governor of Florida, Jeb Bush, the brother of George Bush, had rigged the Florida result. But although he knew this, like Nixon, he hesitated to say so. because of the extreme consequences which could follow from challenging the result. It is also a fact that vote rigging happens in the UK. A few years ago, three Labour members of the city government of Englands second-largest city were found guilty of electoral fraud. Judge Richard Mawbrey said the three members of Birmingham Council were involved in massive, systematic, and organised fraud supported by the Labour Party. The massive, systematic, and organised fraud involved postal voting. Since then, there has been a huge increase in postal voting, amounting to many millions in general elections to the Westminster parliament. Attempts at cleaning up the system have been hampered by party political interests. Although the Liberal Democrats are in coalition with the Tories, they are annoyed at their partners over the failure of a proportional representation referendum. So they have sided with the Labour Party in postponing a boundary review which could give the Tories as many as 20 extra seats in parliament. Unfortunately, the legislation for that boundary review also includes the legislation to clean up postal voting. So that essential clean-up has been indefinitely delayed. But REGARDLESS of whether or not there was actual vote-rigging in the Scottish referendum, the result was dodgy, and wont last. At Saturdays independence rally in Montrose, Sandy Mathers, speaking on behalf of our local Radical Independence Campaign group, told a crowd of about 150 folk (some folk had gone to the simultaneous rally in Arbroath, and some even to the one in Edinburgh) The referendum was rigged - but the vote wasnt. Sandy was our official observer at the count. He had seen nothing irregular. Now, that doesnt necessarily mean nothing irregular happened. There were plenty of opportunities for irregular happenings all over Scotlandm, apart from what was observed at the actual count. In the transference of ballot boxes from outlying areas, for example. in large numbers of votes being mislaid, for example. But even if we accept the vote itself wasnt rigged, that still doesnt alter the fact, as Sandy pointed out, that the referendum WAS. Nobody can pretend the NO side won fair and square. There can be no question of saying Congratulalions old chap, well played. The cheats played with every trick in a very dirty book. The cheats won a cheats win which wont last. The blatant bias of the British State Broadcasting Corporation and practically all of the State-sponsored mass media rigged the referendum. The blatant LIES about Youll lose your pension , which continued to be repeated to frighten old age pensioners, long after such stories had been comprehensively demolished, rigged the referendum The false promises of rapid and genuine Home Rule being delivered within a few months rigged the referendum. Despite having the BSBC and all the mass media on their side, in the last week of the referendum campaign, in a complete panic, the NO side resorted to general-election-style politicians promises which they cant possibly keep, and which are already being shown to be false. It is this blatant rigging described above that makes the result both dodgy and temporary. They ran a general-election-style campaign, focusing on personalities and political parties. They ran a general-election style campaign in making worthless politicians promises. Because the NO side ran that kind of campaign, of course the result wont last a generation. It is already coming apart. Of course the fight for independence goes on, with renewed vigour, as a result of us having achieved so much even when faced with a game that was so heavily stacked against us.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 23:25:40 +0000
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