Electoral abuses in the UK

Here is an interesting article (a bit shocking, really) about the abuses of postal voting in UK local elections.


I mentioned here a while back that I am reconsidering my decision not to apply for British citizenship. I had a look at the forms, thoughtfully provided by my darling hubby (thank you, darling hubby!) and noticed that I will have to swear an oath of loyalty to the Queen. I am not thrilled by this idea. When I mentioned it to DH, he suggested that I protest on the basis that Sinn Fein MPs were exempted from having to do the same thing. (Admittedly, their reasons were more, shall we say personal? than mine; mine are almost pure technicality.) I wonder if Quakerism is a valid exemption reason? My aversion to swearing an oath to a human being is more in the line of the Quaker aversion to all oaths generally. When I was quite young, I worked for the state of Georgia briefly (for the University system, in between bouts of being a student) and had to swear a loyalty oath then (to the state of Georgia and the US and their constitutions, I believe it was). I thought it was very archaic, very offensive, very Georgia. Some 25 years later, my son also dropped out of college for a couple of years and worked for the University, and I believe they were still making employees swear the oath.