Go on, go on - it's good for you
If voting is so darn good for us why do so few people do it, asks Dougal Paver.
Last night the punchily-titled Liverpool Democracy Commission sat for the first time. Its task is to work out how we can engage more people in local politics - either as representatives, organisers or voters.
Now stay with me on this. Quite apart from the fact that it was chaired with characteristic good humour and efficiency by Prof Michael Brown, this stuff matters. And it's why, in my role as an independent advisor to the commission, I'll be hanging on in there too.
In simple terms, my grandfather didn't go in to battle with Jerry so that people could give up on democracy now that they are sated on the fatted calf of consumerism. Sod that: he got stuck in because he knew that democracy was in peril and that man's ability to determine the form and direction of government was central to his economic and social advancement. And he wasn't wrong.
So we've got quite a job on our hands and will be calling on all manner of folk to lay bare their views on how we need to reinvigorate democracy hereabouts.
The outcome will be a detailed set of recommendations to Liverpool City Council, to whom we report. And with a fair wind, they'll do the men of the Durham Light Infantry proud.
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