I heard on the radio news today that electronic voting is being proposed for the election of the Mayor of London.

This is Nirvana to all tyrants. I am sure the EU can't wait to have a harmonised electronic voting system. When you press that button you have no idea whether  it is  connected to anything, or if it is, whether or not after it disappears into some computer, if it counts for anything at all. Though of course you can be sure that "THEY know who you are" - sadly, a reason given to me on occasions by people who declined to sign petitions.

The reality of electronic voting was brought home to me about 18 months ago when I was part of the audience for a Channel 4 TV programme, The Trial of Enoch Powell. It rapidly became clear that the  producers intended Mr Powell to be found guilty of the charge of being a racist. Unfortunately for them, it was also clear that the audience predominantly held the opposite view.

At the conclusion of the "trial", we duly cast our vote by pressing our electronic voting buttons. The screen showed a 64 per cent not guilty, 36 per cent guilty verdict. The presenter, Trevor Phillips, then bounced on stage and announced that Mr Powell had been found GUILTY! There was a stunned silence from the audience, then uproar. It had clearly never entered the producers minds that they would get anything other than a guilty verdict. Chaos ensued. Lots of conferring by the producers. Then we are told that the screens don't show the real result because they don't want it leaking to the press prior to broadcast, so the display is meaningless. More uproar. Shouts of "Show of hands" and threats to go to the press. More conferring. They eventually agree that Mr Powell is not guilty and film the conclusion on that basis.  It occurred to me that they had perfectly good film of Trevor Phillips standing in front of an audience announcing both verdicts, so either could have been broadcast. I waited for the eventual broadcast with interest.

What was shown was the 64 per cent not guilty verdict as displayed to us, though from watching the programme any viewer would have thought it an extraordinary verdict as the editing clearly showed an audience overwhelmingly in favour of a guilty verdict, wholly unlike the real audience response. To add insult to injury as the credits rolled up on conclusion of the programme there was a succession of film snippets in the bottom quarter of the screen, every one was a clear indictment of Mr Powell, designed to put him in a wholly racist light, despite the not guilty verdict. The undiscerning viewer would have come away with the impression that Mr Powell was a racist, despite the vote.  This demonstrated two things to me:

1. Don't believe anything you see or hear on the TV, it is just too easy to be manipulated by skilful editing.

2. Electronic voting is wholly unacceptable. I will only believe physical pieces of paper put into sealed boxes, free to be watched every step of the way by any interested party, and counted in public.

Electronic voting is a tool of tyrants, to be fought against every step of the way.