Snap election 'will cause chaos'

Apparently the AEA chief executive John Turner told Scotland on Sunday he had directly warned the Government and was 'fearful' of an administrative crisis should Brown press ahead with a general election as early as November.

Concerns centre on the problematic postal voting system, which continues to place election officers under a huge burden. The AEA has called on the Government to change the law to extend the time limit between the dissolution of parliament and an election by at least another five working days to 22 days.

The AEA is also warning that some people will be unable to vote or to receive a postal vote because the new electoral roll is not published until December 1.

There was also concern that anti-fraud laws introduced in England and Wales in May would not come into force in Scotland until next year. The laws, introduced after a High Court judge ruled that the vote-rigging in Birmingham's 2004 elections would have "shamed a banana republic", aim to make postal voting more secure by making electors provide their signature and date of birth.

I assume that Douglas Alexander will not be in charge of the printing of Ballot Papers if there is an election as he made a bit of a cock-up of it last time as well as losing the election for Labour.

Scotsman.com News - Snap election 'will cause chaos'

Spoiled Papers Gave Deprived Areas Less Say In May Elections (from The Herald )

Amazing news that the deprived areas managed to spoil more votes in the 2007 Scottish elections than the more well heeled areas.

Apparently 8 of the 10 constituencies with the most spoiled votes were in Glasgow, with Shettleston being the worst despite the relative youth (or perhaps because) of its population.

According to the Herald this is "astonishing news", I would say it is exactly what you would expect.

I said last night that the farce created by Douglas Alexander had likely affected proportional more of the likely Labour Voters than others and this appears to have been borne out by this report.

Spoiled Papers Gave Deprived Areas Less Say In May Elections (from The Herald )

Douglas Alexander - We are ready for poll

Nice to see the esteemed Secretary of State for International Development and former Secretary of State for Scotland Douglas Alexander, in his role as Labour's Election chief, thinks that they are ready to go for an election whenever his esteemed leader has manged to summon up the courage to go the Country. Douglas is of course very pally with the clunker as he is a son of the Manse as well as being one of his chief toadies back in the early 90's.

This is of course the man who presided over the 2007 elections in Scotland, with such great effectiveness that he managed to disenfranchise over 100,00 Scots, many of them likely to have been his own supporters. Since then the SNP appear to have bolstered their position in Scotland whilst Labour have looked stunned by the defeat.

Of course, his aim may have just been to get rid of Jack McConnell, and have his sister Wendy installed as the chief Brown Toady in Scotland. If this was the case then he succeeded in his cunning plan.

Sorry just had to put up this photo again as it is such a gem!


PM's election chief: we are ready for poll | Special Reports | Guardian Unlimited Politics