PM COCOONED FROM PUBLIC

THE Prime Minister’s visit to a local company, Hughes Safety Showers, (Stockport Express April 22) would give welcome exposure to the business, even if it did not provide prime ministerial exposure to the local electorate.

The 2015 General Election is certainly very important and, according to the polls, both main parties appear to be supported equally.

And yet the Prime Minister spends his time visiting companies, schools or nurseries, providing plenty of photo opportunities but his ‘minders’ have not allowed his exposure to the electorate.

One appearance in a television debate is considered enough.

We are being told ad nauseam that we live in a democracy where politicians listen to the views and opinions of the electorate.

When a Prime Minister is cocooned and prevented from exposure to the general public surely this is the antithesis of democracy.

It was not always like this.

I recall Harold Wilson coming to Middleton in 1970, Margaret Thatcher to Marple, and John Major in 1992 on his soapbox.

Campaigning today is a pale reflection of past elections.

It looks as though politicians are relying on the media and advertising to get their message across.

Consequently politics has been diminished considerably.

The Prime Minister has recently likened the Liberal Democrats to a box of chocolates, – you don’t know what you are getting until you pick a chocolate.

For the past five years the PM has worked with the Liberal Democrats in government and, if by now he doesn’t know about the Liberal Democrats then that reflects much more on his judgement than on his Liberal Democrat partners in government. Tom Jackson High Lane