Questionnaire | BrexitKent

Public Opinion Research Questionnaire

This Questionnaire has been prepared because the British Constitution is in need of restoration and repair after well over 40 years of legislation which it is reasonable to assume has been aimed at subordinating UK development to EU aims. According to the late Professor Anthony King, possibly the most qualified expert on the British Constitution this century, the UK Constitution is now a ‘mess.’

Question 1: The Right to Trial by Jury.  In 2013 the Right to Trial by Jury for libel was abolished. Reporters no longer have the right to trial by a jury in cases where investigative journalism has unearthed news not to the liking of those in power. This curtailment of the right to jury trial follows a long train of attempts by Europhile governments aimed at bringing about greater conformity of UK law to EU law. European law is based essentially upon the Napoleonic Code and does not uphold trial by jury. Yet trial by jury is essential to the defence of freedom. In legal systems based on jury trial a government which seeks to persecute its opponents is less able to do so because juries are more reliably independent of the state than the judiciary or police. In legal systems based on jury trial government may create unjust laws but citizens who break them may still be exonerated by a jury. That is to say the decision as to whether a law is just in application rests ultimately with a jury, not those in the pay of the government, be they police or judges.

Do you agree that the right to trial by jury in libel cases should be restored? *

Question 2: Grand Jury. The case for restoration of trial by jury could include consideration of the grand jury, undermined by Ramsay MacDonald and Clement Attlee and abolished by Harold Wilson in 1969 - eight years after Harold Macmillan declared his intent to join the EEC. All these Prime Ministers were members of the Fabian Society as are Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. The grand jury was known as the ‘sword’ of the people because it could serve as a reliably impartial means to investigate matters of government corruption and indict persons suspected of crimes, including misconduct in public office. Reinstatement of the grand jury is under consideration by the child abuse inquiry. The oath used to swear in both the ‘accusatory’ jury in the ninth century and the grand jury right up to modern times was derived from the laws of Ethelred, King of Wessex and Kent.

Do you agree that restoration of jury trial should include consideration of the grand jury? *

Question 3: European Arrest Warrant. The European Arrest Warrant procedure generally means no evidence need be examined before extradition to any EU state, the great majority of which do not have trial by jury.

Do you agree that the European Arrest Warrant should be replaced by extradition procedures which require evidence to be scrutinised in a British court of Law before extradition takes place? *

Question 4: Postal Ballots on Demand and the Right to a Secret Ballot. Until the Representation of the People Act of 2000 passed under Tony Blair postal ballots could only be used by those absent from home or unable through illness to vote in a polling station. Since 2001 postal ballots have been unconditionally available to any person. The number of postal ballots issued nationally has consequently risen from under half a million to over eight and a half million. This has led to increases in electoral fraud both in regard to detected cases - as in the conspiracies in Birmingham and Tower Hamlets – and possibly in cases that have not been detected. The 1872 Ballot Act made clear voters have to be officially witnessed to cast their ballot in a polling station in order to stop employers and landlords demanding sight of how their workers and tenants voted. Postal ballots ‘on demand’ has therefore undermined the Right to a Secret Ballot.

Do you agree that the traditional restrictions on the use of postal ballots throughout the last century should be reinstated? *

Question 5: Separate Counting of Postal Ballots. Presently, unlike in other countries such as Australia, postal ballots are deliberately mixed in with polling station ballots before they are counted. It has been proposed that postal ballots should be counted separately, because this might show whether a political party gets a disproportionate advantage from the use of postal ballots. This could indicate fraud, and so prompt further investigation. Separate counting of postal ballots could therefore help to both detect and deter electoral fraud.

Do you agree that postal ballots should be counted separately from polling station ballots? *

Question 6: Marked Electoral Registers. Since 2002 the full ‘marked registers’ showing who actually returned a postal ballot and who actually attended a polling station have been made available to political parties without citizens having consented to this information being passed on in this way. This may breach Data Protection Law. Political party access to the marked registers leads to more opportunities for postal ballot personation fraud (see House of Commons Library Research Paper 05/65 - 19 October 2005). Personation fraud involves using the identities of persons on the electoral register who are not using their vote.

Do you agree that voters should be asked whether they consent to such information (about whether they actually voted by post or actually voted in a polling station) being made available to political parties? *

Question 7: Progressive Inheritance Tax. Before 1973 inheritance tax in the UK, as also in the USA, was ‘progressive.’ That is to say, larger inheritances were taxed at a higher tier rate. Progressive inheritance tax rates were upheld by both right wing and left wing parties with top tier rates higher than in Europe. Since joining the European Economic Community the different tiers of UK inheritance tax rates have been reduced to a single rate.

Do you agree that inheritance tax rates should be progressive? *

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