This week we had the usual business with the council wanting names of our counting agents and guests at the count. For some reason this always winds me up.

It is because they are so stringent about it I think. In the past we have had letters stressing that you will not be allowed in unless you can present the invitation at the door to prove who you are, although in practice we have never had a problem.

I really can’t see why the general public are excluded from the opportunity to see an important part of the democratic process. Its not as if there is any chance the count will be swamped is it? In some wards we have turnouts nearly as low as 10%. If so few voters can be bothered to vote, how many would be bothered to attend the count?

I could see an argument for having a sort of inner circle area where only the counting agents can go to scrutinise the count, just in case, to stop some silly bugger who is unaccountable interfering, but otherwise it just looks like petty bureaucracy for the sake of it, no doubt dictated by some 19th Century law which nobody has seen fit to repeal.

But if I am wrong and there really is a good reason for not having the count held in public I am sure Gordon will set me straight.

By the way, am I the only person even remotely connected with local politics to think that having the count on Friday morning is a good thing? I feel like I am in a minority of one on this issue.