This book is about a subject I believe to be hugely important - ballot rigging in modern Britain. The practice is real and it is widespread. Vote rigging has occurred and been proven to occur in Birmingham, Slough, Peterborough, Reading, Bristol, Burnley, Blackburn, Halton, Guildford, Havant, Bradford and other towns and cities. Election Commissioner Mawrey concluded that the 2004 Birmingham City Council elections "would disgrace a banana republic." In the course of that election there was a small riot as activists from the local Labour party fought to steal postal ballot papers from both the postal workers on their delivery rounds and Labour's rivals from a local Kashmiri party. The Council of Europe described our electoral system as "childishly simple" to rig. International election observers have found potentially fatal flaws in existing safeguards. Politicians of all three main UK parties have been caught ballot rigging. The dangers to our democracy are very real.