Nigel Farage has called for police to patrol polling stations on election days to crack down on family voting, following allegations of the illegal practice in the Gorton and Denton by-election. It would be “very easy” to address the issue, the Reform UK leader said. Councils and returning officers in polling stations must enforce “the very specific legislation” banning family voting, with backing from police officers to ensure “the law is being obeyed”.

Why is family voting so controversial?
Family voting is when one person fills out or influences the ballot paper for other family members, instead of each voter making an independent choice. The male head of a household is commonly the family member who directs or completes the vote for others.

Electoral observers consider family voting a violation of democratic standards because it breaks the secret ballot principle, limits individual political freedom and often disproportionately affects women and younger voters. In 2023, the UK passed the Ballot Secrecy Act, which made it an offence for a person to “accompany an elector into a polling booth; or position near an elector inside a polling station with the intention of influencing how they cast their vote”.

Being “coerced” by a relative to vote in a particular way is “ugly” and “anathema to British values of open democracy and individual liberty”, said Khadija Khan in the Daily Mail. But Farage’s complaints are “all part of a well-practiced strategy of screaming foul whenever he is defeated in a democratic election”, said Byline Times.

Where does it happen?
Family voting has been documented by electoral observers in parts of Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Balkans and some Middle Eastern and African countries.

Democracy Volunteers, a non-profit group of election observers, said it witnessed 32 incidents of family voting in last week’s Gorton and Denton by-election, in 15 of 22 polling stations that it observed, an “extremely high” number. But the organisation “did not provide any information about the people involved”, said Full Fact. As voters went to the polls, a spokesperson for the acting returning officer in the by-election said that polling station staff were “trained to look out for any evidence of undue influence on voters” but “no such issues have been reported today”.

The Tokyo High Court has upheld a decision to dissolve the Unification Church, a controversial religious organisation linked to the assassination of Japan’s former prime minister Shinzo Abe. Tetsuya Yamagami, who was sentenced to life in prison for the murder, cited Abe’s affiliation to the church as his primary motivation.

Founded in South Korea, the Unification Church has “exerted significant influence in Japan since the 1960s”, said The New Yorker. It was launched by Sun Myung Moon, and followers are referred to as Moonies. They promote a “theological mix of Christian Messianism, Cold War anti-Communism, pro-natalism, and self-adulation”. Around the same time that the church was founded, Moon “befriended” Abe’s grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, “a war criminal who later served as prime minister” and head of the Liberal Democrats, Abe’s future party.

Forced compensation
The church has used “coercive tactics to solicit large donations” from its members, said The Japan Times. A lower court ruled last year that it had “committed acts in violation of laws and regulations that can be recognised as significantly harming the public welfare”. There has been “intense societal focus on the rulings” due to the “scope of harm” the organisation has caused across the country. Under the Religious Corporations Act, the church will be forced to compensate around 1,500 people with “damage fees totalling approximately ¥20.4 billion” (£97 million).

The church will also lose its title as a religious organisation and can continue only as a “voluntary organisation”, so it will lose tax benefits. Even if it appeals the decision to the Supreme Court, the liquidation process can proceed immediately.

‘Exploiting fears’
The Unification Church has faced global scrutiny since the “shock assassination” of Abe in 2022, said the BBC. Yamagami, who has appealed his sentence for the killing, “held a grudge against the prime minister” over his links to the organisation because it “bankrupted his family”.

Investigators revealed “close ties with many conservative lawmakers”, and found that the church “coerced” followers into “buying expensive items” by “exploiting fears about their spiritual well-being”. To combat the “universal threat” of “cults” like the Unification Church, said Nippon.com, Japan should “draw on foreign legal frameworks like France’s anti-cult laws”. This is an “ongoing human rights crisis that can no longer be ignored”.

Moonlight brightens the skies above the High Tatras mountains in Slovakia. The March full Moon is known as the Worm Moon, after the earthworms that start to emerge in spring.

Grzegorz Momot / EPA / Shutterstock

Easter events are in high demand, with popular attractions often selling out well in advance. To help you crack on with planning some fun, here is a range of family-friendly things to do during the upcoming holiday.

Dragon eggs at Gwrych Castle, Wales
Young adventurers are invited to Gwrych Castle in north Wales to search for magical dragon eggs. Fancy dress is encouraged and children receive a treat at the end. Grown-up adventurers can also enjoy exploring the enchanting castle ruins, where “I’m a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!” was filmed during the pandemic. There are spectacular views over the Irish Sea.

Animal magic at London Zoo
London Zoo is hosting a Zoonormous Egg Hunt, with plenty of fascinating animal facts to learn along the way. The zoo is home to more than 8,000 animals and has a variety of walk-through, barrier-free exhibits where visitors can get up close to adorable (and also not so adorable) creatures including lemurs, squirrel monkeys, butterflies and giant spiders. 

Easter festival in Edinburgh
Conifox Adventure Park, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, is hosting an Easter Festival where children can meet the Easter Bunny in Hoppity Hollow, colour Easter mugs, find eggs in the maze and take part in an Easter-lympics. The ticket also includes entry to the park.

White Rabbit tales in Hammersmith, London
Easter bunnies don’t get much more iconic than the White Rabbit from “Alice in Wonderland”, and now there’s a chance to catch him in London. Riverside Studios is staging a dynamic adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale, with an original score, impressive stage sets, elaborate costumes and exuberant puppetry.

Childless women have become public enemy number one
Kate Lister in The i Paper
For “right-wing pundits” and Reform, “older women without kids have become the social scapegoats that single mothers were in the 1990s”, writes sex historian Kate Lister. As such a woman, I find it “almost flattering to be considered such a powerful threat to the patriarchy”. But “pronatalist rhetoric” is “lazy, misogynistic claptrap”. It’s just “far easier to blame childless women than to look at the wider social, economic, and political factors” behind decisions not to have children. 

Gadgets turning vintage make me realise I’m old
George Chesterton in The Telegraph
Young people’s fetishisation of iPods leaves me “in a bit of a spin”, writes George Chesterton. “Am I really so old that a device first on sale in 2001 is considered vintage?” What “seemed so revolutionary at the time” is now valued for “its unconnected simplicity”, as a gadget “‘only’ for music”, with no “maddening social media notifications”. That “my past is the equivalent of an emotional support dog” for “anxious Gen Z cultural butterflies” is “hard to take”.

Football’s converging moral panics hold up a mirror to our fractured world
Jonathan Liew in The Guardian
“Football used to be our refuge,” writes Jonathan Liew. Now it “reflects” the “insanity” of our world “right back at us”. Players are booed “for being Muslim”, the “Champions League format is the six-seven meme”, “VAR is like trying to get hold of your bank at weekends”, and one of the World Cup participants is being bombed “by one of the hosts”. But I’ll “put up with the bad bits because the high is still like nothing else on Earth”.