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My slightly fatuous comment to somebody else aside... I've not looked at European countries, since I can't read German (or French, Italian, Spanish... This was never an issue when I went travelling around Europe a few years ago, but has somehow become one in an argument on a football forum...

No it isn't. I am against photo ID being required for voting, except where there is clear evidence that the risk of abuse exceeds the risk of people being excluded (hence ID being required in Northern Ireland, where there has been good reason to be concerned about voter fraud). I wouldn't be...

I don't imagine the Bayern Munich board is graced with threads on such weighty topics as universal suffrage. I'd like to think that if it is there are fewer people supporting taking it away, by stealth or design.

I think it probably falls into all three of those categories, even if the government are only aiming for one of them. You say the 2nd and 3rd points are more negative, if option 1 were the stated reason it'd suggest they've gone stark raving mad.

Requiring ID cards just creates another argument over what problems that is meant to solve, and how the cost is justified given the enormous list of problems facing the country that would actually benefit from having the time, expense and money spent on them instead.

There will be people in any country with voter ID requirements who are turned away because they don't have an acceptable document with them, either because they don't own the right document or they happen to not have it on their person at the time. Regardless of who those people would have...

Interesting how any change to the voting system that doesn't benefit the Conservatives requires a referendum, and we had one of those about 8 years ago which definitely validated FPTP over all alternatives, forever. When it marginally helps the Conservatives suddenly any change can be voted...

Not sure why you would have needed a photo ID to sell a car, all that paperwork can be done on the gov.uk website

I have previously made the point on this thread that it's almost certainly the case that far more people in those countries are denied the right to vote due to not having correct ID when they arrive at the polling station than there are cases of voter fraud prevented. In this particular area...

According to this website: https://www.val.se/, the law in Sweden allows somebody who has photo ID to verify the identity of a voter who doesn't possess ID for whatever reason. I'm not sure why that's any more sensible or secure than the system in the UK.

Again, there's a difference between having a requirement for photo ID to use an optional service, and requiring it to vote, which is somebody's right.

Thank you for actively engaging. I believe STV is the system proposed by the Electoral Reform Society and Liberal Democrats. No idea which particular system for working out the redistribution they prefer, I tend to find my eyes dragging when I've tried to read those sections of the wikipedia...

I was referring to you saying that you're comfortable with the idea of a party achieving a majority in parliament with only around 40% of the vote. Personally I'm fairly happy with 40% of votes translating to about 50% of seats. It's when a party gets under 40% but still wins a clear majority...

I've never made the argument that it's to prevent poor people from voting. Nor do I view the Conservatives in general as intrinsically evil.

I'd expect it's less to do with whether people are poor as such, and more that people without ID are more likely to be from ethnic minorities - who are much more likely to vote labour than conservative. The Labour party is entitled to prevent people who aren't members from attending/voting at...

A quick check on wikipedia suggests that Germany doesn't require photo ID to vote unless specifically requested by the polling station. I'd also suggest that in all those countries, the number of people prevented from voting due to not having the correct ID at the polling station for any reason...

Until 1918 no UK government had been elected with a single vote from a woman, it didn't make it right. To be honest I consider "not caring" to be a significantly better argument than most of the specific objections given.

There are MPs who's views should be regarded as far right in Parliament now, it's just they're Conservative backbenchers who you barely hear about. Similarly far left MPs in the Labour Party.

I'll be honest, I'm going to struggle to be polite in my reply to this. I hope you won't think too poorly of me if I fail utterly. Any voting system can throw up situations where two parties have the same number of seats, or one party is just short of a majority. We had that with our existing...

Arguably the current major parties are effectively coalitions anyway, in most countries Jacob Rees Mogg and Ken Clarke wouldn't have been in the same party for many years, or Tony Blair and Jeremy Corbyn. Since the start of the 20th century 12 elections have produced hung parliaments...