I thank the noble Lord for those helpful comments. As he was talking about his long experience in local elections, I calculated that my first election campaign was a mere 52 years ago. I say that with particular enthusiasm because, when I said during Questions this afternoon that I recalled debating the question of an English Parliament in 1968, the noble Baroness, Lady Warsi, was kind enough to turn to me and say, “You couldn’t have been old enough”. However, I was. The second election campaign I took part in was the Orpington by-election, which returned Eric Lubbock, now the noble Lord, Lord Avebury, to the British Parliament, which was a short while ago. So we have all struggled with election regulations and their proper consideration for some time.
I can recall as a young man talking to someone who had stood in a by-election during the Second World War, who told me just how many regulations had not been observed under those conditions and the efforts which some locals took to ensure that some votes were not counted. Nowadays we have some highly effective and dedicated EROs and others at local level with whom we have to co-operate in close partnership. The noble Lord is quite correct to say that perfection is not possible in every single polling station throughout Great Britain, but efforts are taken to make sure that, as far as is humanly possible, the same regulations are obeyed in the same way throughout the country.
3.45pm
On the removal of numbers, the research has suggested that this would decrease confusion, particularly in those mayoral elections where that peculiar Jack Straw innovation—the supplementary vote—is used. The noble Lord will recall that Mr Straw was willing to move 20% of the way towards the alternative vote but not to move very far, so people were allowed to put down “1” and “2” but not “3”. I recall from when I was a candidate in Manchester that a number of people of Irish extraction would vote in our “X” system by putting down “1”, “2” and “3” because that was the way in which they had voted in Ireland. We used to have great arguments as to whether those votes could be included, because it was quite clear what the intention was even though they had not voted in the right way. The conclusion from some detailed research is that not having the numbers makes the ballot paper rather clearer to those who are voting, whether or not the supplementary vote is being used.
The noble Lord also asked about regulations for other polls, including parish polls. I am delighted to be able to tell him that further regulations will be brought forward for me, him and others to discuss in due course in time for local elections in May. I hope that that answers all the noble Lord’s questions.