The Electoral Commission’s Report into the European and council elections this year expresses the need for reform in voting practices so as to encourage more people to vote. The report notes: “At a time when there is concern about participation in politics, the Commission is again calling on the government to bring forward a strategy for how to modernise our elections and run them differently in the future to make them both more accessible and more secure.” They want people to be given the chance to vote earlier than polling day itself “possibly at the weekend” to give more people “a chance to have their voice heard”.

Are the current voting arrangements really that onerous? Why was turnout consistently above 75 per cent (83.9 per cent at the 1950 election) during the 1950s and 1960s, if polling practices are an impediment to people voting? These criticisms miss the wood for the trees: people no longer identify or believe in the messages promulgated by the three main parties, hence falling turnout. Fiddling with polling day logistics will do nothing to address this. I suspect that if the government — in alliance with the commission — comes up with new ways of making voting easier, a large section of the public will remain abstainers.