Representation of the People Bill

Part of the debate – in the House of Lords at 5:30 pm on 29 February 2000.

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Photo of Lord MacKay of Ardbrecknish Lord MacKay of Ardbrecknish Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords 5:30, 29 February 2000

My Lords, I am only the recipient of private mailshots, but those concerned seem to be able to bombard my friends and myself pretty efficiently with material. Indeed, one has only to look at magazines these days. One barely sees one that is not full of inserts. I am sure that that is done very efficiently and economically.

There is no problem as far as concerns producing a single mailshot with leaflets to a standard A4 size for each of the candidates who want to make use of such a facility. We have come a long way forward from the traditional system in this country. If we take the mayoral election alone--we are agreed that that is what we are talking about--the traditional way would have been for each candidate to have his own mailshot. I must point out to the noble Lord, Lord McCarthy, that the parties would have delivered that to the Post Office impeccably, as they have done for years.

We accept the Government's argument about cost. Although we are not totally convinced, we are prepared to listen to their great worries about many frivolous candidates abusing the mailshot facility. Therefore, we agree that there should be one mailshot. If we have agreed to that, which will hugely reduce all the potential costs, it seems to me that we should at least attempt to try to ensure that the material going out in that one mailshot presents the candidates as attractively as possible to the electorate of London. If they are presented attractively, I suggest that there will be a better chance that at least a few more of them may vote than would otherwise be the case.

I am not impressed by the booklet idea, with each candidate having a little bit of a page. That seems to me to be a poor solution. I do not believe that that is the only solution available. The other solution of an individual piece of paper produced to a standard size by each of the candidates is perfectly feasible, given modern techniques of envelope filling.

Therefore, having gone a long way forward from the traditional method of doing this to having one mailshot per candidate, I think that we can actually start to look at the new technologies to ensure that the political parties and each individual candidate can produce his or her own leaflet to a standard size. As I said, the mail order people do this every day, as do magazines; indeed, everyone seems to do it. Those concerned can actually put it together and get it to the Post Office pretty efficiently. That is the right way to proceed. I can assure the noble Lord, Lord Harris of Haringey, that if we do so we will not need a covering letter from the Prime Minister. But, as the noble Lord, Lord McNally, pointed out, if it had been one-man, one-vote, the covering letter from the Prime Minister would have been firmly for the losing candidate. So perhaps a covering letter from the Prime Minister for Mr Dobson might be quite a good thing. I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.