Breathe Easy (Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats)

Barnet Borough Liberal Democrats <info@barnetlibdems.org.uk>

Breathe Easy

June 12, 2009 12:00 AM
By Cllr Jack Cohen in Hendon Times

As usual on election days I did a spot of telling at the local polling station in Childs Hill. Telling is the job of collecting polling numbers from the voters .The number of people voting slowed to trickle during my stint. Unusually many of the voters stopped for a chat. Perhaps because this time the other two main parties did not have tellers on duty.

Quite a few asked why Political Parties collected polling numbers. I explained that the numbers are checked off against our own list of known supporters and in this way we know who has voted and who we need to chase up. Although of course these days so many more voters have postal votes so the exercise of collecting numbers at the Polling Station is not that nearly as important.

A more historical reason for tellers is also to expose personification. That is where a voter turns up pretending to be someone else. Hence the old words of advice "vote early vote often". I doubt if this is a problem in modern times, but the widespread take up of Postal Votes does in my view open up the opportunity for fraud. And, indeed activists have been convicted in the Courts for doing just that and received severe penalties.

Quite a few voters had been sent two identical polling cards by the Council, more waste of postage. I trust they were not given two votes! I am not a fan of Postal Votes on demand. I think there is something special about casting a vote in person. Voting used to be a family and community occasion. Old friends milling around the Polling Station, a little bit of Political Debate, an acknowledgement you are doing your public duty.

Voting appears to be less of a celebration of our basic right to elect whom we choose to govern us and more of a chore that needs to be got over as quickly and as easy as possible. Maybe this is why the turn out is so low. In Australia voting is compulsory. I once observed an election in Sydney. Lines of people queued outside the polling stations. There was a party atmosphere. Local groups set up stalls selling refreshments. The political parties handed out leaflets. There was real engagement in the political process.

Later in the day I went to the launch of a new support group. I was guest of honour at a newly set up group called "Breathe Easy Barnet" I had not realised how many people in the Borough suffer from breathing difficulties. This group meets monthly at the Community Centre in North Road Burnt Oak. I was proud to have been invited to join in their festivities and I had the honour of cutting their celebration cake. I paid tribute to the work of the Committee that set up the group. Breath Easy Barnet will provide much needed help, advice and friendship to many people suffering from respiratory conditions Perhaps we Politicians should pay more attention and engage more with the many self help groups all of whom do wonderful work throughout our Borough. In that way we can go some way to restoring confidence in our Political System.

Breathe Easy is part of the British Lung Foundation. Further information is available on their helpline 08458 50 50 20.