BLINK and you’ll have missed it. The local elections came and went with barely a whisper.

It’s a sad state of affairs but it would appear the biggest winners from last week’s polling day was the apathetic party. It wasn’t unusual to see turnouts languishing below a third of those entitled to vote.

You could argue that it is everyone’s democratic right not to cast their vote should they choose but it’s not exactly a healthy state of affairs.

The elections have really just highlighted once again that there needs to be a concerted effort made to re-engage the electorate. Too many decisions are made by politicians both locally and nationally for the majority of those affected by them not to have had some say in the decision makers themselves.

Quite how you re-engage people is the question.

It all starts from the top where national politics has become farcical. Issues such as party-gate and the yah, boo sucks nature of debate in the Commons hardly inspiring anyone to become involved in the political process.

You get the feeling that Westminster politicians in general - there are some outstanding exceptions - are so detached from the real world that they will never fully understand the problem.

Perhaps a change in the voting system may help to bring back the voters. Does first past the post really work? Would some form of proportional representation be better?

Ultimately it probably needs to the politicians and political parties to take a critical look at themselves and shape up.

DAVID RUSH