LIFE was much simpler when Private Willis, B Company, 1st Grenadier Guards, was the Palace Yard sentry at Westminster in the days of Gilbert and Sullivan.

As he sings in Iolanthe "...every boy and every gal/that's born into this world alive/is either a little Liberal/or else a little Conservative!" Poor Private Willis, he'd have needed another complete verse, more maybe, to list all 14 candidates and their affiliations.

Spoiled for choice, I'd say, but did it get the voters of Hartlepool out to put their X on the ballot paper? Not exactly, as 54.2pc of them didn't bother.

It's hard to believe that 54.2pc of Hartlepudlians were working away from home that day, or on holiday, or stricken by whatever "lot-of-it-about" bug was doing the rounds there last week. Surely, somewhere on a best-fit straight line through the whole 14, there must have been one candidate who came near enough any voter's personal prejudices to warrant support.

It frightens me that people treat their right to vote so cavalierly when, for the less-well off - and especially for women - it was so hard-won and when we'd be in a pretty pickle without it.

Unfortunately, it also says a lot about the cynical view, from among the grass roots, of those who take up with party politics, their honesty, effectiveness and desire to serve anything but their own careers. Unfair as that is, it's the view which comes out of any spontaneous discussion of political matters at a social gathering where the debaters are not card-carrying members of any party.

That's me. No party has ever been able to lay claim to my loyalty. Circumstances, candidates, campaigns, maybe even just cussedness, turn me into the elector whose vote has to be won anew every time. But won it is.

Admittedly, I take the lazy way now and have a postal vote, not just because my polling station has been moved away and in a direction I rarely go. I simply got sick of being harassed at the door by party hacks wanting, with no authority whatsoever, to know my polling number and getting nasty when refused it.

In the coming weeks, those of us reading this North of the Tees will get a postal vote on the proposed regional assembly. This paper has taken a very strong, though non-party-political, line against the assembly but, whatever your own views, please return your voting paper.

With a low turnout, the winning side will never have a proper mandate; the losing side will always voice doubts on the verdict. Don't let apathy win the referendum.