Offending ballot paper with slogans!

Like many over this past weekend, l received my postal vote for the GLA election which will take place on the 3rd of May.  There are 3 three ballot papers and the one which caught  my eye is the pink one, which is the vote for the Assembly across London.  There are some parties who have incorporated tag lines or slogans beside their name which is clearly designed to nab voters at the very last moment by igniting an emotional reaction in voters encouraging a reactionary vote.  For example, number 2 on the ballot is the Christian Peoples Alliance with the linet ” Supporting traditional marriage”    This continues further down the ballot paper to number 4 where the English Democrats tell us their are ” Putting England first!”.  Then at number 8 we have the National Front saying its ” Putting Londoners First” and finally number 9 is the House Party with the line ” Homes for Londoners”.  It seems to me, that these smaller parties are being allowed to bend the rules in order to help them get some last minute campagining across to voters at the critically point at which boxes are ticked off.  

Both the major parties could quite easily have slogans of their own, for example the Tories could have “The Boris Party” after its name.  Labour could have “For the many not a few”?

There is also another dimension which strikes me in this, and that is the prejudices which are revealed in the slogans .  For example, the Christian People’s Party seem to be having a go at homosexuality and the plethora of other relationships which exist outside of wed-lock.  Should those who are have to face these prejudices and indeed the rest of voters have to face these sorts of subliminal prejudices at the point of voting?  The English Democrats and National Front on the other hand are trying to define who is one of them, again in a subliminal way trying to exclude many of the communities in London.

The Election Commission should not have allowed any such slogans in the first place.  Although, as much as these slogans are used to identify certain types of parties, voters can also use them to identify who not to vote for!  It is probably premature to start mentioning any lessons to be learned from this forthcoming election but I hope that this is one practice which will not be carried through to the elections in 2016.