Who's voting for identity safeguards?

Maurice O'Brien • Published 25 Feb 2010 11:00 0 Comments

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SHAMEFUL. Somebody named Clinton Proud's wiped out 25 years of my life, if not my entire existence. I'd never previously given much thought to the consequences of identity theft, even last week when some BBC Berkshire lassie informed us that "fake UK passports were used to kill a Hamas militant in Dubai". Well, perhaps the page edges were a tad sharp.

But on Monday night I picked the post off the mat and there it was. Fairly innocent looking envelope, bearing the legend The Electoral Commission in the bottom right hand corner. Maybe they wanted to honour this column for keeping the democratic flame burning with its undying devotion to, and admiration for, our elected representatives. Maybe not.

Clint's letter began: "If you've recently moved home (well 1985 might seem recent in the context of civilization as a whole, but...), you may have left behind, without realising it, your right to vote."

The hell I have. The wooden stake for helping dispose of the political undead? Rest assured, that electoral registration form gets filled in and dispatched by return post every autumn without fail.

Scanning the page for further evidence of my disappearance, beneath Clint's scrawled signature and his title, Head of Campaigns and Public Information, is a PS in cramped, smaller typeface which declares: "We believe that you have recently moved home and are not registered to vote at your new address. If this is not the case and you have any questions about why you have received this letter, please visit www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/mailing";

I visit. It tells me: "We get people's names and addresses from an organisation called Experian Ltd. Experian's mailing list is compiled from a number of different sources such as information in the public domain, consumer surveys, and other compliant third party data sources.

"Experian collects and manages UK consumer data entirely in accordance with the Data Protection Act and other best practice guidelines."

Best practice? The address is correct but Clint's letter opens, 'Dear Mr Brien'. They've hijacked both my capital O and my apostrophe. Now I know the artless apostrophe's misused, abused, largely ignored or employed for purely decorative purposes these days, but that one's been mine for nearly 61 years.

Somewhat concerning is that Experian apparently specialises in fraud prevention and constantly bombards me with email pop-ups offering to check my credit rating. Equally disturbing is that Mr Proud is urging M. Brien to use either or both of two handy self-build envelopes to register himself for a vote before it's too late.

What date's the UN monitoring delegation arriving from Harare, Kabul and Pyongyang to verify General Election 2010 is free and fair?

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