Our friends are right. It happens in every election. The parties put forward their diagnoses and prescriptions. The electorate is courted, but at all times is treated as a patient. Admittedly we are listened to, especially as our ‘spin doctors’ (another interesting word) pour over polls that catalogue our complaints. No party enters an election without listening to the patient. Though sometimes we yearn for leaders who march to the beat of their own drum. But those are leaders who still seek to cure us. They are the old-fashioned type, who get straight to the treatment. But is that really the only alternative? Must we always be observers? Must we always be recipients? Must we always play sick?

No wonder our politicians merely tell us what the symptoms indicate: their diagnosis. No wonder they merely announce what socio/politico/economic medication is required. And hardly surprising that, sometimes like our doctors, they never tell us about the side-effects.

We have only ourselves to blame. For we have been negligent. We have allowed ourselves to be disempowered. We cannot even get a second opinion: not a proper one. For what is any political party going to be interested in? Telling us the truth as they see it? Or damning their political rivals?