.The big dEE .

22.1.25

LONDON: Royal mail top brass sat before a committee reviewing july’s election on tuesday, but mps managed to trip over their own questions in revealing ways.

The Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee sat for a second time this year to review last year’s election. The review focuses on the relative trivialities of postal voting, overseas voters, identification requirements and protection of candidates rather than more vital issues, such as: why is democracy a single day affair?

Mps were particularly disappointed that royal mail had failed to deliver their parties’ propaganda leaflets well before election day. “We could not rely on royal mail to deliver phased communications,” said conservative mp John Lamont. “There’s a number of examples of electors receiving bulk communications after the election was over from all the different parties.”

For Lamont, communicating with citizens was better kept to before the election, to avoid “electors getting in touch with us to say ‘why are you writing to us after the election’s over?’”

“Good question,” Lamont added, apparently not desperate to keep in close contact with his constituents.

Committee chair conservative mp Simon Hoare also revealed a pretty lacklustre attitude to public participation. “Is there an argument for government to give consideration to pausing and reversing this trend towards endemic postal votes?” he said. “Should the government try “to have more direct democracy, i.e. people just turning up and voting,” he added, misunderstanding direct democracy as people turning up in person to vote for representatives, rather than citizens voting on legislation itself.

Hoare also provided a slip that would horrify Freud himself. “The royal mail as we know is the key element … to delivering a selection, er er, a successful election,” accurately describing the electoral process, by which royal mail and administrators provide citizens a curated selection of candidates, rather than a widely inclusive democratic field.

Most witnesses who have so far addressed the committee’s review have said the unpredictable time frame from calling an election to the vote taking place has caused significant logistical issues.