I Voted!

Once every few years, we're allowed to exercise the democratic poison pen. This lunchtime I trekked up to Australia House, the High Commission at the east end of Strand, to vote in Australia's 2007 Federal Election.

As the photo shows, special tents were erected outside Australia House to facilitate the security checks. Queueing fences snake around the south side of the building, as long queues are expected during the fourteen days that the polls are open. There are, on average, 250,000 Australians in the UK at any given time, mostly in London. In the 2004 election, about 20,500 Australians voted at Australia House.

Did you know, according to the AEC rules, it is illegal for political parties to hand out how-to-vote cards (anywhere in the world) at any time before election day, with the exception of the early polling facility at the High Commission in London.