An anonymous letter, published in Brighton’s Evening Argus (16th June 2001), reports verbatim a conversation between a female interviewer for a local radio station and a senior police officer, discussing the Oldham race riots. The conversation, which was broadcast, was taken down by a listener, sent to the Argus and is copied below:
Police Officer: Yes, we know who these extremists are but until they actually break the law there is little we can do.
Interviewer: How do you know who they are?
Police Officer: Oh! By the electoral register.
Interviewer: How?
Police Officer: Well, they obviously need to vote to get their choice of candidate elected, so we can get their names from the electoral slips and compare them with the studs.
Interviewer: I’m sorry, but how can you do that? Surely the slips are not marked? Surely they are secret?
Police Officer: Oh no. We can check every election slip against the polling cards, which are written on the stub when the election slips are torn off. Obviously, we’re not interested in the three big parties – only the extremists. We have nothing to do with the majorities.
Interviewer: I’m sorry, I still can’t believe our votes are not secret. How can you justify this?
The Police Officer then quoted some Act or other which I (the interviewer) did not catch ¦
So are we voting in secret or does "someone" keep track???
