Following the result of the general election Britain was left with a Tory majority, with the clear mandate to deliver Brexit. What the new government was not tasked with is altering laws which prove inconvenient.

Wherever your political loyalties lie, we are a democracy and the right to vote has been a privilege hard fought for and well won.

Working class households were granted suffrage in 1867, women not until 1918 and unilaterally in 1928. Prior to 1832 the right to vote was essentially a rich mans privilege, being over 21 and holding property of a certain value. A system reinforced by larger boroughs with more MPs usually inhabited with a higher number of working classes. 

The concern are present is we will regress to old political systems if new legislation is bought into operation. To inhibit the ability of the electorate to vote makes a mockery of freedom of speech, it makes null and void the ability of the population to make an informed choice about their political and economic  priorities. 

What proposed new legislation entails is the mandatory use of photographic identification when casting your vote. This may have a very real and detrimental effect upon postal voters, those by proxy, homeless and those in psychiatric care. Voting should be a process easily understood and simple to undertake. Expats not resident in the UK will see rights extended from 10 years to 15...in time for the next election. However putting a specific number on British diaspora is difficult with the latest figures showing those in the EU being close to 784,900 which has a huge influence on the potential result of an election. 

Many believe voting should be mandatory for those over 18, even if the option of abstaining from voting for a particular candidate is an option. 

We have minuscule levels of electoral fraud in the U.K. certainly not enough to justify such a comprehensive change of policy. In fact changes were recommended by the EU which we are leaving. It seems unusual for the government to follow EU recommendations when they have been thus far rejected.