Vince Cable has described David Cameron’s plans to change strike laws as “simply potty” It is understood that the Conservatives are considering plans to legislate that strikes can only be held if a threshold of 50% of the membership is reached in any ballot.

Although it does seem wrong that strikes affecting people can be brought about by the votes of a small number of people, we live in a democracy where people can choose to vote or not to vote, and many people choose not to vote. If we therefore say that a union ballot is invalid if it doesn’t involve at least 50% of the membership, we would also have to say that all council elections with less than 50% turnout are invalid too.

The Conservatives can’t have one rule for unions and another rule for politicians. The same rules should be applicable to both. Maybe it would be a good idea to say that all elections needs to involve 50% of their electorate to be valid. Could the chaos caused by invalid elections spur people into going out and voting?