In a an earlier thread Gareth and Cllr, informed one and all that in nothern Ireland it was the done thing to "vote early and vote often", it is very strange that since the new system was introduced Sinn Fein`s vote has enlarged to such an extent that they are now the biggest nationalist party in the north.

In the Birmingham postal voting fraud involving Tony Blair`s party, presiding Judge Mawney warned that, "there was no realistic system in in place to detect or prevent postal voting fraud".

Judge Mawney condemned the government for complacency in the face of fraud, stating that the present postal voting set-up would,"disgrace a banana republic".

One political commentator suggested they copy the northern Ireland system of postal voting to prevent further fraud.