Several readers have told me that they find the distopian background to my first four books difficult to handle. I suppose I intended that to be the case, although of course I didn't want my books to be so dark that nobody would read them! I wanted - and still want - them to be a warning. I wrote 'Courting Rendition' before we even knew that we would have a vote about Brexit, and nothing that has happened since has made me doubt my instincts. I still believe our country is moving in a very dangerous direction.
So now (May 2021) this Tory government wants to introduce photo ID as a requirement when we vote. This is dispite the fact that voter fraud is not a big issue in the UK, and despite the fact that not all Brits have photo ID. I don't have a drivers' licence, but at present I do have a passport, so I am OK - for the time being. Many people don't have and don't need passports and can't afford cars. If you are struggling to put food on the table, you are unlikely to be thinking about next summer, when we will be free to travel, and you might make that long-deferred trip to St Lucia!
All of which means, of course, that it will be the poor who will be deprived of their vote. I can only guess at two reasons why any government might create such a situation. One is that they simple have no clue what it is like to live on the breadline (or below it). The other is that they know exactly what they are doing, and they intend to deprive those who are most likely to be disaffected, from voting. I wonder which is worse?