“I Teague” (May 29) asks if “anyone else has given any thought” to the long running issue of when you vote it is not, contrary to popular opinion, never anonymous.

Well, yes I have. And I would like to take this opportunity to thank I.Teague for highlighting this very important fact. And I also recall reading the book the above correspondent refers to. That the South African Secret Service allegedly “knew the identity of everyone who voted for the Communist Party of Great Britain (and of course the ability to know who voted for other political parties) – thanks to British intelligence using this simple vote tracing procedure”.

Whether this happens now is a moot point. However, the fact that it could (because nothing is in the pipeline to change the actual voting procedure that would ensure that casting a vote is confidential), should raise the alarming possibility that if a scenario were to arise whereby a Government of an authoritarian persuasion came to power – and some might say, that the present Government is or could be sailing close to that stance, even though it got its sticky paws on the lever of power with just over 24% of the vote in the 2015 General Election – to be able to find out who voted for whom is a temptation that many politicians would probably find irresistible.

Andrew Martin

Abbotsbury Road,

Weymouth