We do our banking, our shopping and manage our relationships online. But our democracy remains decidedly analogue: in 2018, the simple act of casting a vote requires citizens to trudge down to a polling booth, queue up, and tick a box on a voting slip.

Thousands of people around the country then frantically count votes overnight, with results slowly dripping in through the morning, constituency by constituency. In the days running up to the vote, forecasters pour over weather reports to see if rain or sunshine could affect the vote and how many voters are likely to turn up.

Wouldn’t this all be a lot easier if we could vote from home on our computers, or even on our smartphones? Why can’t we vote online? Internet voting would decrease the cost, and increase the speed of election results, not to mention boosting turnout, and mean fewer ballots spoilt accidentally.