As a committed forager and a casual employee of my borough council I wonder …

Are the machinations of state completely at odds with the natural world? It certainly feels so. But then, what cost democracy? What cost liberty? Being tied up with tape, cuts to the core, to the quick - red tape, especially so. Odd that ‘red tape’ evokes both socialism and controlling forces. And yet, without it, we have no voice - except the voice of riot and dissent - or, perhaps, the media. A media that may champion any perceived cause of injustice, at their often political whim. We live in complex times.

Being required to register our existence, on an annual basis, does seem like overkill and is not the practice elsewhere and wasn’t here - within fairly recent memory. It’s a pain in the arse. The cost to local authorities is huge; paid from local taxes - keeping track of the community. Self financing? We object - the best of us object. And yet …

Those most vocal in their objections appear to fall into one of two categories: those who wish to remain ‘off radar’ (who will always exist) and those who shout and whimper about everything. It is this faction who are most dangerous - an amorphous, amoebic, cluster who want this, want that, who decry the government and all its policies (whichever mainstream party), who typically, but not exclusively, read ‘The Sun’ and typically never put their X in the ballot box. What is this democracy, then? When, those who shout the loudest do the least. With their spleen vented, are their energies depleted?

I deplore their shouts, their negativity, their claims and proposals. I deplore their lack of true engagement. What use is bluster?

I accept they feel like the ‘little man’ (yes, or woman), whose ideas are ignored, who feel forgotten, swamped. But unless they step up to the plate, make themselves known through due process, as fought for by their forebears - be they the starving Ag Labs of Victorian England, the Rebeccas of Wales, or the Emeline Pankhursts of the Women’s Suffrage Movement, then surely they can have no right to clamour.

Marx, wanted a return to prior times, when life was more simple. (Note the ironic link to the current swathes of the disenchanted.) An ideal. It couldn’t, cannot, will never be. And such a life would certainly not appease the grumblingly angry of our modern era.

Blake saw governance as stultifying and destructive. When left to the few, it necessarily will be. And whatever the piques, they will be directed here.

The answer surely then is to embrace it, to become involved. To become part of the system - the smallest part, is to be had through excercising the right to vote. Larger parts are available! Join committees, start discussion groups, action groups. And expect to be challenged. Be prepared to defend your stand. A valid view will benefit for the rigour of it and dialectic will make it stronger, more potent. And in the democratic process all voices should (must) be heard. I, for one, will likely challenge you. Anything less, is not democracy. Earn, and excercise, your right to it.

But first of all. Claim your right to vote. Vote! Forget the fact you are legally obliged to register - do it because it matters. Do it to count and to be counted.

Do it!