Before I start is anyone else struck by the similarities between the hysteria of some science commentators over the new Science Minister, Greg Clark’s, signing of an EDM about homeopathy in 2007. And the reaction of the enslaved and brainwashed monsters in Monsters Inc to being touched by a child or even just their clothing in the course of their work to power the city by collecting children’s screams…..!? ….

The General Election campaign more or less started this week with David Cameron’s cabinet reshuffle. It’s going to be a long summer, autumn, winter and spring in the run-up to May 2015.

But we may as well start thinking about our own manifesto, campaign and election rhetoric then. Time to reclaim the language of public involvement and hold our politicians and policy-makers to account.

My campaign slogan is going to be: ‘It’s the citizen, stupid.’

During the 1992 US Presidential Election Bill Clinton’s strategist, James Carville, crafted three key messages to keep the campaign focused on track. The most famous of these is: ‘The economy, stupid.’

The insistent calling to account over the recession hit economy was the undoing of the sitting President George Bush Sr who, we should not forget, had been riding high in the pills following the first Iraq war.

In similar vein to Clinton and Carville I shall be asking our politicians: How will you empower the citizen? How will you involve us in your decisions? How will you help my community?

Interestingly, the other two messages Carville wrote on his campaign noticeboard way back then were:
– Change versus more of the same
– Don’t forget health care
I am not sure about that first one. On that second, I think Cicero put it best don’t you, when he said: ‘Let the welfare of the people be the ultimate law.’

There you go, from Randall Boggs to Bill Clinton to Cicero. Have a good day.