As the forthcoming General Election looms we are being asked to line ourselves up against the major issues - the NHS, public spending, immigration, Europe and crime. It is our ‘civic duty’ to, on one day, provide a mandate to politicians for the next five years, to make countless decisions in these areas, to change and shape policy, to possibly ‘pause’, to possibly ‘u-turn’. 

But how do we feel about being considered a statistic to be aggressively wooed every few years?  And then to have our opinions second guessed during the intervening period? 

A period that is now set at five years - a long gap, in which so much inevitably changes.  I am of course painting a caricature. There are many ways that we, as citizens, can engage in the democratic process in between elections, be that through our member of Parliament, or actively engaging in local campaigns to save a hospital, to shape a local planning initiative or provide feedback on a local service.
 
But what does this meaningful democratic engagement look like at its best?