Electoral indifference isn’t healthy for the country that is why people should get out and vote - Andrew Vine

But there is something more which makes them turn out, rain or shine, to vote in person whether at national or local elections. It’s a belief that doing so is a duty and a privilege, an obligation on the responsible citizen to engage with the democratic process. For them, that means turning up in person, having names ticked off by the electoral officials and going into the booth.

The first election at which both were eligible to vote was in 1955, and neither has missed one since, even though these days that means quite an effort. I admire them immensely and so do the staff at the polling stations, who always recognise these gentlemen’s resolve to vote in person in the warmth of their greeting.

And the seriousness with which they take polling day has long influenced their families. Their children and grandchildren are equally conscientious voters, not because they have been lectured, but thanks to the quiet example set ever since they could remember.

If only there were more like them, especially among the young. My two elderly friends despair of the people who pop up on television and in the newspapers every time an election rolls around to smirk that they won’t bother voting. And there are an awful lot of them, disengaged, cynical or just plain stupid as they stand aside from a process that is at the heart of our national life.

Plenty were to be heard in a compelling but dispiriting programme on BBC Radio 4 last week which focussed on Hull East, the only constituency in the country where at the last general election less than half the electorate bothered to vote. Just 49.3 per cent turned out in 2019. The national turnout was 67.4 per cent, which is bad enough, but for the majority in Hull East to effectively ignore the election is abysmal.

Turnout at May’s local elections in the constituency induced even more winces – in one council ward, Marfleet, only 11.6 per cent voted. Members of the public interviewed on the programme ran through the usual dreary and ignorant prejudices that we’ve all heard so often: “What’s the point?”; “They’re all the same”; “You can’t trust any of them”.

That a corner of Yorkshire should be so disengaged or disillusioned with the process of deciding who will form the next government in a few days’ time should be a matter of concern for all of us. It also raises the question of how society can do more to engage people with democracy and stress the importance of taking part in elections.

Unlike my two friends who will vote irrespective of how difficult it is for them, the people I heard on the radio won’t be demonstrating to their children and grandchildren that this really matters. Instead, they will entrench apathy and distrust in politics in the next generation.

Is our education system placing enough emphasis on countering these attitudes? Decades ago, the headmaster at my junior school used to gather us all around at election time and use one of those old-fashioned globes to make his point. He’d turn it slowly and point out the countries across the world where their people could only dream of the chance to have a say in who governed them – all of eastern Europe under the Soviet Union, China, most of South America and Africa.

And then he’d spin the globe round to Britain and tell us about the freedom our parents exercised in draughty church halls or sports clubs serving as polling stations to choose who they believed would give us the best chances to succeed as we grew up. It was a valuable lesson, never to be forgotten, and one reinforced by our parents’ scrupulousness about voting.

We need to get back to that, but sadly it’s unlikely to happen on Thursday. The consistently commanding lead of Labour in the opinion polls could well result in a degree of apathy as many believe the election is a foregone conclusion and see no point in turning out.

The lack of Conservative canvassing in some seats that the party has effectively written off as beyond saving can only further encourage voters to stay at home. Electoral indifference isn’t healthy for our country. Once it’s all over, whoever wins needs to think how we encourage people to behave more like my two old gentlemen and less like the can’t-be-bothered of Hull East.