This UK Government cannot be trusted to behave democratically. We have seen that in the prorogation of the Westminster Parliament and in tricks like not providing tellers to count votes against an amendment, causing it to pass. Ian Blackford, SNP leader at Westminster, described Boris Johnson as behaving “like a dictator, not a democrat”.
It is highly likely that the Scottish people will shortly be voting on whether to become an independent nation again. It is essential that process be scrutinised by formal international invigilation, to make sure the conduct of the referendum is fair.
Please sign the petition for international observers to the next Scottish Indyref. Only the UK government can request an OSCE observer mission (it must be a current member state that asks), therefore the petition must be addressed to Westminster, not to Holyrood.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe, through its Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights, is the organisation specifically charged with monitoring democratic processes in Europe, and in which the UK government is an active participant in monitoring other countries’ elections.
Not only will the OSCE send a large team to observe the conduct of the campaign and physical balloting and counting process, they will send an advance team of experts with international experience in monitoring media bias in campaign situations, with a particular emphasis on state media. These experts will produce a careful and scientific quantitative and qualitative analysis of the extent of media bias, and this analysis will be presented to all the member states of the Organisation of Security and Cooperation in Europe. The very presence of the international monitoring team will be a strong deterrent to bad media behaviour, and will boost public confidence in the process.
In the 2014 referendum there was massive anti-Independence bias through all the privately owned media and also, blatantly and demonstrably, within the BBC.
There was a crucial and highly significant breaking of the rules of the referendum when the Unionist parties combined to issue the (since spectacularly broken) promises of “The Vow” during the official purdah period of the last week. Suspicion was attached by many to some extraordinarily high postal vote turnouts in certain localities. All events of this kind would be subject to real time scrutiny were an OSCE observer mission present.
We are frequently told by the government that, when it comes to their programmes of mass surveillance of the population, “if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear”. Those who wish to claim that it is axiomatic that both the media coverage and the physical process of an Independence referendum would be fair, have nothing to fear from OSCE scrutiny. It is an organisation of which the UK is a contributing member anyway, so there are no grounds to objection to its monitoring.
The OSCE handbook on the media monitoring they will undertake is well worth reading and gives a valuable insight into how thorough they are. They do not just measure crudely the amount of time given to each side. They assess the quality of coverage of each side, the inferences and body language of the presenters. They look at the legal, institutional and ownership framework in which journalists operate and the pressures on them to self-censor, as opposed to just considering whether there is formal state censorship.
It is essential that all sides in a future Independence referendum have trust in the fairness of the process. There is every reason to believe that British state institutions, including both the BBC and the Electoral Commission, need to be subjected to outside scrutiny.
Wherever you are in the UK, and whatever your stance on Scottish Independence, please sign and support this petition for strengthening confidence in the fairness of democratic process. The restoring of Scottish Independence and the break-up of the UK state is a major step; it is essential that the process involved in the decision is accepted by all as fair.
Obviously an observer mission takes some time to organise and needs to be in place right from the start of any campaign period, or even before. Like all international organisations, the OSCE’s processes take some time to agree between members. Therefore it is essential to launch this petition now rather than wait until a referendum is called.
Couldnt vote on last ref.I was living in South,Central and North America for 13 yrs…i came home 4 years ago to make sure this/next time.
It is laughed at in Latin America yes Latin America for the way our last ref was held with a wee bit of paper with yes or no marked with an X.
There is plenty of evidence last vote was rigged and London have a lot to lose.Check out intelligence services of UK Government…….paid Unionsts putting yes votes in no box….its laughable and sad-we were robbed
What are the checks on the fairness of electronic voting and vote-counting in Latin America? Did you gather any evidence about that on your travels?
It is so annoying when people won’t take “No” (2014) and “Here you are, 37% of votes – that’s all you’re worth” (2017) as answers.
No it’s not annoying to me or others in Scotland.Are you in Scotland ? Do you live here ?
I have voted snp for 56 years and I’m fed up of the bbc coverage on anything Scottish. I believed 56 years ago and I still believe Scotland can survive on its own.??????????????
We need independent observer’s ?
Also, we should have overhead cameras at every single point ?
We must have international observer’s for the entire voting, no postal votes to be allowed. All counting to be done in Scotland. Westminster is greedy corrupt
‘ message saying ‘ we could not do what you wanted to please try again’.
Already sowing confusion?
I signed and there was a long delay before the confirmatory e-mail arrived on which you have to click a link to authenticate it. All rather over the top. I believe that there have been problems with e-mail today, especially BT’s.
There are only 1,432 signatures there. The organizers are asking for 10,000. That number triggers a debate in Parliament, for what it’s worth.
‘Yahoo says most of its email services are working again following a fault that affected users across the world for more than seven hours.
It had been impossible for people to send and receive messages using the platform or check their webmail accounts.
In the UK, the problem had impacted BT, Sky and TalkTalk’s email accounts, which are powered by the firm.
Downdetector indicates that the problem began at about 07:00 BST.
“Most services are back online,” Yahoo tweeted shortly after 14:30 BST.’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-49596820
“Boris Johnson as behaving ‘like a dictator, not a democrat’.”
I’ll be contrarian. What if it’s actually as follows?
* Boris Johnson doesn’t want an election [1]
* Dominic Cummings and his pals [2] do want an election…
* and they want Labour under Jeremy Corbyn to win.
A BINO vs Remain referendum is ideal for the far right. It’s much better than a crashout in October. It would turn up the heat on the pressure cooker. If Nigel Farage doesn’t call for armed insurrection, the least he would call for is abstention. And we know what that means: perceived illegitimacy.
Notes
1) Johnson’s government is falling apart! His brother has resigned from the Cabinet. Amber Rudd may be next. I wouldn’t bank on Sajid Javid staying long either.
2) Cummings does have pals I reckon, who aren’t in the limelight. He’ll get on with Stephen Bannon like a
refugee centrehouse on fire [3]3) Disgusting violent simile chosen because these guys are fascists, and fascists like violence.
He is now speaking in front of lines of police cadets in Yorkshire and is taking questions from journalists, whose names he recalls with total ease. Behind the bluster and bluff there is a large brain. It’s just a pity that he’s gone so wrong over decades. He is 55 now.
A police person has just collapsed/fainted so proceedings come to a halt Interesting that neither he nor a police person went to the help of the one affected by the heat.
Afraid I had to look that up on
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/politics/brexit-an-idiot-s-guide-to-the-united-kingdom-leaving-the-european-union-1.3781560
Bino – “Brexit in name only”
John Major agrees with me:
“(John Major) is set to describe the prime minister’s adviser Dominic Cummings as a ‘political anarchist, who cares not a fig for the future of the party I have served all my life’.”
I am close to predicting that the party with the most seats after the election is most likely to be Labour.
A Remain versus “Brexit in Name Only” referendum may be too good a chance for Cummings, Bannon et al. to pass up. They’d be in seventh heaven!
You want “democracy” in question, and the “old ways” to be questioned and overthrown? Then you would really get it. One indication that John and I are right would be if the Sun starts suggesting that knuckleheads should vote for the Brexit Party. Having sneered at all the “Remoaner” parties, if they also blast “B*lls-everything-up Boris” then there’s no other party in England they can realistically support other than the Brexit Party.
NO POSTAL VOTING ! Fraud from start to finish.
I agree
We need an outside, independent agency to ensure the results are counted and reported with unquestionable accuracy. No Westminster interference, dirty tricks or skullduggery, no mates on the board of the companies responsible for the counts. CLEAR, TRANSPARENT, HONEST.
It’s to rise and march for independence…we have an English corrupt Government who have no morals, humility, nor authenticity, or heart for their own people or for Scotland, Ireland or Wales… we can’t allow this political comedy to continue. I vote, and have always voted for independence. Scotland have the ability to stand on our own feet without England….we only need look at all the other countries under British/English rule who have fought for independence and have flourished after they removed the leaches. We are WORTHY!!!!
Are you aware that many southern/English people buy houses in Scotland, in order to gain a Scottish postcode to ensure their kids have free education? This in turn, means there is one less study place for a child/person who has been born and is a permanent resident in Scotland? Is this a fair system..? Are you aware that many from England moved back into their Scottish holiday homes for a few months so they could cast their vote for ‘NO independence’, I spoke with 56 people who bought holiday homes in Fife, Scotland just for this purpose….. is this a fair system…I think deviant!
I have no issue with English people themselves as we are all Jock Thomsons bairns, but I do have issue with inauthentic practices at the expence of our people and the next generations. and with their English Government regards their lies and deceit…. its time we stopped being so nice and apologetic for breathing and start standing up for ourselves. No more SHITE! WE SHOULD BE MARCHING FOR ‘Zero tolerance’ to LIES, ZERO TOLERANCE TO THE THEFT OF OUR RESOURCES, ZERO TOLERANCE TO THE ABUSE OF OUR SOCIAL SYSTEMS AND VULNERABLE COMMUNITIES UNDER THE LONDON GOVERNMENT, ZERO TOLERANCE TO THE ABUSE OF OUR NHS…… A ZERO TOLERANCE CAMPAIGN !!!! Come on move your arses!!!
The Thursday, Media review has been axed from BBC Radio Scotland schedule. The one time the station allowed any critical analysis. Eamonn O’Neill and Stuart Cosgrove regularly held BBC Scotlands outrageous coverage of political events up to scrutiny.
Will Sturgeon ever criticise Donalda MacKinnon? A widnae haud yer breath. The “sister” escapes all censure.
Expect James Naughtie to return again from Heed office to show the natives how a British American Project trained operative fluffs for the Deep State.
Signed.
Thanks for the tip-off; petition duly signed and I’ll alert family and friends.
Another issue worth thinking about in advance is the UK’s postal voting system. Serious doubts about it arose in the 2014 indyref and we must ensure that all loopholes are securely fixed before indyref2 comes along. It’s not just the 2014 indy voters who have doubts: here’s a link to an article in the Daily Mail in early 2014:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2578776/Scrap-postal-votes-elections-fixed-says-judge-warns-ballot-rigging-probability-parts-Britain.html
Loads more at https://www.google.co.uk/#q=UK+POstal+Voting+system+weaknesses
Got to have international observers next time.also for the postal votes
Agree ? %. We cannot afford the counters that have been used previously, and although watched, have been seen to be wrongfully piling up incorrect yes in no piles… Total undemocratic and cheating
We need to get a honest result this time I’ve always thought our last Independence result was interfered with ???????
Either the UN or the EU, do not allow the ballot boxes to be stored overnight or sample by anyone. Boxes are followed from polling station to counting hall, close scrutiny to those counting and visitors kept in the one area.
Could easily set up cameras to monitor and record the count, just like the casinos do above the tables. The counter has to hold the vote in such a way that the camera can see it, and then both the image of the vote and what pile it goes into is recorded for posterity. If the video shows the counter failed to let the camera see the ballot, then a recount of that stack is ordered.
Essential to ensure there is no Unionist intervention
itstime
I don’t trust Westminster the bbc and the bias media. Also counting of votes should be done by impartials nota company owned and directed by the Tories. We in Scotland were cheated in 2014 and will be again if it’s not sorted ?????????????????????
This is essential to ensure the count is beyond question.
I strongly request that the next and any future Scottish Referendum has International Observers
It is essential to guarantee a fare and democratic result to the next Scottish independence referendum. That includes impartial, and competent scrutiny of all of the proceedings throughout. Including, most emphatically, the counting procedure. No more missing ballot boxes, or spurious counting conduct, and definitely no more alarms interrupting the count.
we want Indy ref 2 to be fair and above suspicion
Good luck! I don’t say that sarcastically, but as someone who’s wanted International Observers in every American election for the last 30 years. I hope you succeed!
You people are beyond belief.
The UK electorate voted to eave the EU and yet the UK remains trapped in the EU. Scotland voted t remain part of the UK and so is part of the UK. You don’t like that then vote again – you don’t want to run the risk of having the “wrong kind” of result – just let the English vote. Scotland will be gone pretty much instantly
So there is a clear way forward for the Ubermensch people of Scotland, albeit they made need the assistance of the Untermensch people of England. For the Untermensch people there is no way forward.
If you don’t like our company so much, why don’t you simply bugger off?
Then everyone would be more happy.
I’m still stunned that democracy is now defined as the people only get one vote, which is then carved into stone, and the people never, ever get a chance to vote again.
War is Peace
Ignorance is Strength
Protect Democracy by Suspending Democracy
Why does WestMonster want to hold on to Scotland SO BADLY ?
Signed as requested…. noticed there are only 2248 signatures so far, though.
Think it would be sensible
Thank you for starting this petition. I will be promoting it to my family and friends.