Won't vote, couldn't care less

Party leaders chat up the Cosmo girls

Over the years, I have been repeatedly frustrated by the political apathy shown by so many people, and by specific demographics.

A lot of people feel that their vote is meaningless, understandable if you live in a Constituency with a large majority for one or other party, especially if you perceive the incumbent MP to be useless.

Voting is just the first step to political engagement. Sometimes it seems to people that decisions taken are remote from and irrelevant to their lives eg the war in Iraq. MPs are influenced by the content of their post bags, and even more by the individual issues constituents bring to their surgeries. In my area, and, no doubt, similarly in others, there is enormous amounts of involvement by ordinary people. A minority of ordinary people, but, still...Many of the parks and commons have Management Groups made up of local users.

I live in a New Deal for Communities area, which has a board made up of local representatives, which is bringing an impressive range of improvements to the area. It's actually a damn good scheme. Many of the old Regeneration Scheems - City Challenge, Single Regeneration Budget etc were very centred on capital projects. Those ar eimportant, of course - Clapham Park NDC is due to spend tens of millions on transforming social housing. But we also have Street Wardens. Not a perfect cure-all, but definitely a plus for the area. We have preventive health schemes - cholesterol checks and salsa classes; we have a Job Club 'shop' where people can go for assistance in applying for jobs. There are training schemes in areas like catering and hairdressing. A very significant demographic target is women aged 18-34. Probably not Cosmo readers, to be honest.

But who are also the biggest beneficiaries of the Minimum Wage and improved rights for part-time workers? Women, many in the 18-34 age group. These are the sorts of things the Tories would get rid of, because they're not popular - with the Men in Suits and the Blue Rinse Brigade, who wouldn't dream of not voting.

Once upon a time Douglas Jay - a minister in the Sixties - was able to say

In the case of nutrition and health, just as in the case of education, the gentleman in Whitehall really does know better what is good for people than the people themselves.

This is rightly ridiculed nowadays as being extraordinarily patronising; however, sometimes the woman in Whitehall does know a lot, because people have told her. And now more than ever it is time for even more people to tell the woman or man in Whitehall how we want our public services delivered.