IT IS the height of insolence for anyone to attempt to bully or “blackmail” anyone else into voting, either specifically or generally.

Those who willingly forfeited their freedom, life or whatever for the opportunity of our participation in “free and fair” elections did so precisely for that reason, not for the duty or obligation to do so, which is highly undemocratic and a severe violation of civil rights, I submit.

Moreover, the concept of official compulsory voting, apart from any ethical considerations, is ultimately unenforceable, as long as the procedure comprises secretly putting (or not placing) one or more crosses (and nothing else) alongside the name and persuasion of one or more candidates, as required.

Some people will never be interested in politics and some will never understand it, often with no desire to learn, understandably and justifiably, thus resulting, if forced, in probably purely random selections.

I nonetheless have a limited degree of sympathy for any society in which the failure to cast a vote results in individuals’ forfeiting the option of subsequently seeking aid from their local, regional or national representative.

Today’s letters

I have recently invariably voted – chiefly for one particularly party, as it happens – since becoming “domestically settled”, not least as I recall being deprived of this possibility throughout my involuntarily itinerant spell, during which I paradoxically required (and deserved?) it more than any other time.

Lastly, I have never quite grasped why, in principle, a dimwit (or even Diment?) should have the same say as a Dimbleby, while self-evidently acknowledging the exceedingly controversial and complex practical nature of any alternatives, nor do I accept, risking accusations of triteness, that “lunatics” are necessarily less politically astute than many “on the outside”.

DAVID DIMENT

Riverside Court

Oxford