Electoral Law Act (Northern Ireland) 1962 (Amendment) Order 2009

I am glad that the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, has now dissociated himself from the Ulster Unionists and the Conservative Party on this matter. I welcome the comments of the noble Lord, Lord Smith of Clifton, about advertising. I declare an interest, which is fully recorded in the Register. I know something about this subject. I think that the noble Lord would agree that people in Northern Ireland take a tremendous interest in elections and who has the right to vote. They want to know what is happening. Of course, on this occasion there is to be a major upheaval in local government in Northern Ireland and they will be keen to know what is being proposed. I am sorry to hear, yet again, that the noble Lord, Lord Glentoran, wants to limit their ability to know what is going on behind their backs. He wants to reduce the publicity about the changes in local government in Northern Ireland. Perhaps on this occasion he will, once again, disassociate himself from the Ulster Unionists and the Conservative Party. Advertising on radio and in weekly papers for all kinds of elections in Northern Ireland is now a matter of great concern within the media industry, which is very disturbed by the policy of the Government and the public agencies. They seem to be creating further problems as we go down the line of trying to reduce costs in electoral activities. No longer are government agencies getting value for money; more and more, they are involving a decreasing number of the population in Northern Ireland. The most recent example is the European election. Postal vote applications were advertised on Classic FM, which is not one of the most popular radio stations in the west of Ulster; it may perhaps be very popular in North Down, but it is certainly not throughout the rest of the Province. They were also advertised in the Belfast Telegraph, which mainly circulates among the half a million or so people living in greater Belfast, not among the other 1,250,000 people living outside the city, and in the News of the World, which is not popular among many Protestants and Roman Catholics in Northern Ireland. They were not advertised in the weekly papers that are read by the wider population in Northern Ireland. What was the net result? In the recent European election in Northern Ireland, there was a dramatic decrease in the number of people who applied for postal votes. Paragraph 7 of the Explanatory Memorandum is entitled "Policy Background". It refers to 100 electors. Is that 100 electors in the new district council areas or in the 26 district council areas?