Do We Want a Democracy or a Pantomime?

The next general election is hurtling towards us with the force of a damp sponge. We have, at most, 20 months until Decision Day- but who expects there to be a great fizzing debate? Who thinks we, the people, will have a chance to dig deep into our country's problems and tell our leaders how to put them right? Nobody. Instead it will be like an X-Factor final in a bad, bad year: which empty shell sounds sweetest? It's a bleak thought: in one of the world's oldest democracies, none of us expects democracy to work as it should.