Local Electoral Administration and Registration Services (Scotland) Act 2006 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2007

I was not going to intervene on these Scottish matters, but I agree substantially with everything that my noble friend said. I give him my full support, as ever. I rise because there are other people alive today who share my horror at the way in which political slogans are now put on ballot papers. I thought that I was the only person in the world who objected to that; I have raised the matter with the Minister before. Political parties can now register however many versions of their name—the Minister will tell us, but I think it is 10 or a dozen. They can use any of them in any circumstances in different wards in the same authority, for example. They are all at it, including my own party, so perhaps my noble friend Lord Steel will join me in a Liberal Democrat campaign to stop it. Two mayoral elections ago the Liberal Democrats stood as something like ““Liberal Democrats against Privatisation of the Tube””. That is wrong. Names of political parties are their names, and we should not be using ballot papers as political standards. As the noble Duke said, Scotland is going to the polls on 3 May with three different electoral systems on the same day. The first past the post system will be used for the constituencies of the Parliament; a top-up form of proportional representation by lists will be used for the regional Members of the Parliament; and, something that we never thought we would see on the British mainland again, there will be the single transferable vote—a delightful system—for the local authority elections in Scotland. Some time in past history the Government, from whichever department it was then, set up an inquiry into electoral systems, which has been looking at the different electoral systems for the European elections, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly. Since we are told that the inquiry is still going along—not very fast, but it is still deliberating—will it include this year’s Scottish elections? In particular, will it include an investigation and a study of the single transferable vote in the council elections as part of that inquiry? The Minister may not be able to tell me now, but perhaps he will write to me.