Universal franchise

Postal vote fraud in council elections three years ago might have been more extensive than was previously thought:

... in the two wards that were the focus of the investigation there has been an 80 per cent drop in the number of postal voters, while in four other wards where there were also claims of fraud the numbers have fallen by more than half.

The sharp fall off followed an audit by West Midlands Police and Birmingham City Council to check if existing voters knew they were registered.

You can't have an almost universal franchise. It's like something being "fairly unique". Either it is universal or it isn't. By expanding the postal voting system as they did, Labour made a simple decision: they would boost their own votes at the expense of the universal franchise. They knew full well the consequence would be fraud and the loss of voting rights for some women.

Blair need have no worry about his legacy. He killed the universal franchise before it reached its hundredth birthday.