One day into the election campaign and people have already started using eBay to sell votes (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/blog/default.stm). If enough people sold their votes, a determined and wealthy party supporter could snap them all up and have a real influence on the election. Surely this can't be legal?

Your article answers your question.

Could this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4408101.stm) and this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/4406575.stm) be some of the causes?

:banana: republic, eh?

Yes, eBay have removed the listings and I can't find them on there. Still, people try to sell anything on that site!

Originally posted by t020
Yes, eBay have removed the listings and I can't find them on there. Still, people try to sell anything on that site!

Yeah cos there's folk out there that's daft enough to buy anything!

Especially Americans it would seem.

It is an offence to vote more than once in the same election, and it is also illegal to vote using someone else's vote. To do so would be to commit impersonation, which is a criminal offence.

If someone was "unsure" about which way to vote, and in order to make their mind up they needed a small "gift", how would that hold up, legally?

Originally posted by t020
If someone was "unsure" about which way to vote, and in order to make their mind up they needed a small "gift", how would that hold up, legally?

Like, say, a nice juicy tax reduction? This has been a Tory tactic for all the years I can remember.

Surely you're not suggesting we should prosecute the Conservative party for offering such financial inducements to the masses? :)

Originally posted by Rich
Yeah cos there's folk out there that's daft enough to buy anything!

Especially Americans it would seem.

Give it a rest Rich.

Sierra

Originally posted by Greenback
Like, say, a nice juicy tax reduction? This has been a Tory tactic for all the years I can remember.

Surely you're not suggesting we should prosecute the Conservative party for offering such financial inducements to the masses? :)

Ah well, I meant a more *direct* approach but I suppose in a way all campaigning is basically bribing people in some way to vote for their party. Tories offer people lower taxes, Labour and the Lib Dems offer people more taxation in return for pumping (read wasting) billions in public services and supporting people to comfortably watch Trisha and not have to work.