I happen to live in a constituency where our Member of Parliament is rather high profile. Setting aside the general campaigning which, as usual, seems to revolve around Labour and the Conservatives attacking the respective opposition leaders and the Liberal Democrats trying desperately to rise about it all and thus having a lack lustre performance in the media; there's the undercurrent of "Why won't people vote?" This year the leafleting and canvassing to me was minimal (aside from a Tory manifesto in the post from Melissa, Boris's parliamentary Girl Friday after I mentioned I had had nothing from the Tory party through the letter box). I saw the Labour candidate in the centre of Henley during the two week "phoney war" period which precedes a UK campaign, but he didn't appear to be making much effort to approach people. I never saw or heard the Liberal Democrat candidate at all (although a leaflet was mailed to me, which had an attack on Boris and his other business interests). I did manage to meet Boris during his campaigning in Goring Heath for a brief 15 minutes before he was whisked away by his silent campaign manager. I did manage to come away with a promise from him that he would vote against ID cards when the motion is put before the house, defying the whip if necessary, and a glossy signed photograph for the wife.

With such a lack of targeted campaigning from all sides in my area is it any wonder that voter apathy reigns? My feeling is that politicians expect people to vote regardless of their lack of effort to appeal to them or to encourage turnout. Perhaps this is due to my living in a safe seat; I've seen the same lack of interest in the electorate in my previous adobes, safe seats one and all, two Conservative and one Labour. Whilst not a deliberate attempt at disenfranchisement the disinterest in the actual voter produces the same result. If you don't come around to talk to me or listen to my views, if you simply send begging missives that don't appeal to my concerns, if you don't realise that electoral participation needs attendance from both the electorate and the elected then please don't complain about voter apathy and turnout.