[Tealeaf]

I just been to vote down here in the East End. Talk about a throwback to rotten boroughs, intimidation and bought votes:

1) No policeman on duty in the polling station.

2) No private polling booths (i.e. cubicles with a curtain and guaranteed privacy) - just triangular shelves to rest your paper on.

3) Ballot papers face open (not folded) as they're placed, face upwards, in the ballot box (for computerised counting)

4) 4 women in Hajibs (no spoken english, never mind written) gathered round one asian male as he instructed them - in Bengali - on what to do.

5) 1 white, 1 west Indian, 2 Asian tellers completely ignoring this farrago.

So I placed my cross against the you-know-who for everyone to see, and slid it in the box. (not my original intention, but I was mad)