Everyone seems to have certainly now realised that the polls at least are looking very bleak for Labour, as they have done for a while. So of course now is the perfect opportunity to try and delve into some ways to increase the turnout of those that would usually vote Labour...I mean, to increase democracy.

A wide range of initiatives have been announced by the independent Councillors Commission to the media over the last 24 hours or so that include lowering the voting age to 16, introducing higher pay for those organising elections at local level, and the idea of entering voters into a lottery where they vote. Of course all of these seem to be aimed at people that are more likely to vote for Labour or Lib Dem (which is also a plus for Labour if they can play it correctly).

In fact by lowering the voting age to 16 alone Labour must be interested in the potential 25% share of younger voters in a population count now easily over 1million. If you take that with the average 60% turnout rate then that could translate to 60,000 more voters for Labour than Conservatives, the only danger of course being the support it would certainly give to the Liberal Democrats. In the right areas this could of course prove both pivotal and fatal for Labour so you can certainly see why they've been apprehensive for so long, but perhaps Tory dominance coming up to 2008 has made the benefits outweigh the risks?

I guess that the question is whether Labour will take the bull by the horns and try something new. With the scandals of recent past, their dogged determination to pass and new reports today that some of their trademark bills of the past may be , I certainly think they need to consider these electoral reform suggestions very seriously.

Ultimately it may have sounded as if I started this blog off facetiously but the truth of the matter is that I think if such measures can be successfully employed to get people who wouldn't (or couldn't in the case of under 18's) usually vote, and they happen to be generally Labour voters, then ultimately democracy is still going to be done a whole lot better. Maybe the discussion should now be not on how valuable these reforms are...but if they go far enough.