Many people in the British Isles today, especially England, see voting as a chore, something they know they should do, but as they are likely to not like any of the condidates or they see voting for an alternative candidate as a wasted vote, they don’t bother – and the statistics bear this out.  The graph in figure 1 below shows the voter turnout, as recorded from ONS data by Statistica, between 1918 and 2024. Its depressing reading.

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What is worse, is the proportion of th epopulation who have decided who runs the nation, and in 2024 we hit a new low.

The Labour Party won 33.7 percent of the  votes cast in the 2024 general election, with the Conservative vote share falling to 23.7 percent.

In a scenario where we have:

1. Low Turnout: Only 60% of eligible voters participated. The second lowest turnout since 1918.
2. Vote Share: The winning party secures around 33.3% of those votes.
3. Representation: This translates to just under 20% of the eligible voting population (and an even smaller proportion of the entire adult population, including unregistered individuals).

This highlights several points:

• Weak Mandate: Any government formed with support from such a small percentage of the population struggles to claim it represents the “will of the people” in any broad sense, regardless of how many MPs it may have in Westminster.
• First-Past-the-Post (FPTP) System: The UK’s electoral system exacerbates this issue because it prioritizes constituency wins over proportional representation. A party can secure a majority of parliamentary seats with less than a majority of votes nationally.
• Democracy in Name?: While technically democratic, as elections are held and votes are counted, this process often leaves large portions of the population feeling unrepresented. Critics argue this undermines the spirit of democracy, which ideally ensures government reflects the will of the majority.

This is a situation that cannot be allowed to continue, people must vote, in the British Isles there is a gut wrench reaction to “mandatory” voting, but is this because the Governments have not embraced technology, not thought it through about how people can vote, securely and in a way to mitigate attempts at election interference – I think we can all agree the answers to these are YES – governments have not been noted by their “out of the box” thinking.

So, what does British Democracy propose.

The integrity of an electoral system must always be a high priotity, a cornerstone of national security as it allows the people to maintain a free electoral system, free from corruption, domestic and especially, international, interference. So, how do we ensure this integrity.  We are considering, but open to discussion, the following.

1. The Introduction of a National ID Scheme for all residents over the age of 16 years.
   1. UK Citizens would have a smart Photo ID that would be distinguishable by its colour – based on the UK Driving license. Grants access to National Health Services and all other public services and the benfits system. This would include any foreign national granted Permanent leave to remain. 
   2. Foreign Nationals on Education Visa would be issued a smart Photo ID similar to the above, but a seperate colour to distinguish it. No access to the National Health. They would be required to hold medical insurance for the period of their stay in the country. 
   3. Foreign Nationals on sponsored a work Visa would be issued a smart Photo ID similar to the above, but a seperate colour to distinguish it.  No access to the National Health. They would be required to hold medical insurance for the period of their stay in the country, paid by their employer. 
   4. Foreign Nationals on seeking asylum would be issued a smart Photo ID similar to the above, but a seperate colour to distinguish it. Grants access to National Health Services and limited parts of the benefits system as applicable. 
   5. Foreign Visitors to the British Isles will be legally required to hold statutory health insurance to cover healthcare costs for the period of their stay in the British Isles. Exceptions would exist for citizens of nations where there is a reciprical healthcare agreement.
2. The smart ID cards would hold data about the individual, height, eye colour, hair colour, medical gender, ethnicity, place of birth, blood group, National Insurance Number, NHS Number, scanned facial Photo and a unique ID number that would be randomly generated and changed each time this data is read. Further, the cards would hold a copy of the owners fingerprints for ID verification purposes. All this data would be encrypted to prevent illegal access, this would allow them to be read in Hospitals, by the Police and security services, including Border Force as well as ID checks in Government Officers, for access to benefits and for ID verification where there are restrictions on purchase or for ID verification by employers. Employers and where used for Age verification would not be able to read the data on the card, except for the image of the owner and fingerprints for ID verification, the card would be read and compared to the central database to verify authenticity. We shall create a seperate page detailing how we thing this can be made to work.
3. People could vote via a secure website that uses their smnart ID card to acces, with their vote anonymous and secure, they could then do this from home, from their mobile device (if enabled to verify ID via the card), from a place of work with a secure terminal, from public buildings, such as Libraries, Universities, educational estblishments and even shops that have the correct equipment – we believe that by making voter a simple fast and secure process then more and more people will vote without the need to look at making it mandatory, whilst making a significant improvement in voter turnout.
4. Voting in elections in the British Isles would be restricted to those who are either resident by birth, naturalisation or have been granted permanent leave to remain and have been resident for a minimum of 4 years. Citizens from other nation states, such as the Labour Party idea of allowing EU citizens to vote in UK elections, would not be allowed to take part or vote in elections within the British Isles.
5. Voting in national elections would be spread over a 7 day period to allow all people who wish to vote, the ability to do so. Voting by British nationals who are elligable to vote in British Elections shall be allowed to do so at the Emabassy Building in the nation they are in. Those who are now resident in other nations (ex-pat) would be excluded unless they operate a business in the British Isles or pay Income tax to HMRC.