How do we get people to participate when they don't want to?

Some of you may have heard me on Beyond Westminster at the weekend, talking about how we can encourage greater public participation in decision-making, whether it be through primaries, deliberative democracy, citizens' juries, referenda, etc.. I may have come across as a bit sceptical about some of these ideas, as in 'fine in theory but how do we make them work in practice?'

I've just been to an meeting this evening which illustrated this perfectly. (And yes, I am now back in the office, but not for much longer - if only because there's a band tuning up in the Labour Club below, sending rumbling vibrations through my office floor, and I suspect I'm not going to like what I hear!)

It was a PACT (Police and Communities Together) meeting, held in the ultra-modern surroundings of the Bristol Brunel Academy (Really looking forward to good GCSE results from them this week. And incidentally, worth checking out the fitness centre that has now opened there; good to see it being well-used by the local community.)

I wouldn't usually be able to attend because I'd be in Westminster, so I've made a point this summer of pencilling some into my diary. This was my first one, for residents of the St. George and Speedwell areas.

There were two police officers present and two PCSOs. There was me. And there were seven local people, representing five households. Two of them didn't actually live in Bristol but over the border in South Gloucs; they'd come to the meeting because their son had been the victim of an attempted mugging in St George's Park.

We spent a useful enough 45 minutes discussing anti-social behaviour, policing the park, the lack of local youth facilities and a few other issues, but it was hugely disappointing that out a possible catchment area of maybe 10,000 households, the turn-out was so low. I thought perhaps it was because it's August, but then the police officer leading the event said that turnout was almost double what it had been at the previous such meeting, some 10 weeks earlier.

The lack of participation could be down to a number of factors. Maybe people are too busy these days. Maybe they're happy with things the way they are. Maybe they're disillusioned and think nothing would come of it. Maybe they didn't know it was happening... But it illustrates how difficult it is to get such things off the ground. How do we ensure participation is high enough to be meaningful, and the participants generally reflective of the community in question? Would the time of those four police officers perhaps have been better spent out walking the beat, talking to people on the way? Would my time have been better spent doing the same? (I cancelled a canvassing session to be there). Of course you have to start somewhere, but I've seen this happen time and time again. It's only when there's a hugely controversial local issue that people turn out in their droves.

I'm not saying we shouldn't attempt such forms of public engagement, but we have to be careful they aren't seen as a panacea to all problems, or used as a substitute for real action. One of the bugbears of my time as a councillor was how often the need to consult was used by council officers as an excuse not to take difficult decisions, or kicking into the long grass things they didn't want to happen. Yes, people should be consulted on issues which concern them. Of course they should. But we have to make sure it's a genuine consultation, which asks pertinent questions and engages with more than an unrepresentative but vocal minority - and that's sometimes very difficult to achieve, particularly at a very local level.

Anyway, my worst fears were confirmed... the band had been sound-checking with a Bryan Adams song, followed by 'Cum on Feel the Noize' and now 'Alright Now'. I am finding it very difficult to write. Time to go! For perhaps a slightly more coherent account of this, here's the Beyond Westminster clip.

Someone needs to explain what went wrong and why

Seeing as I have been taken to task on here for supposedly not taking rape seriously enough (which was wrong, but...), let's talk about the cab driver just convicted of a series of assaults and almost certainly responsible for many more (100 say the serious papers, as many as 500 say the tabloids). In my opinion there should be as much of a public outcry over this as there was over the Baby P case. His victims have been let done by the authorities - in this case, the police - clearly not doing their job properly. The guy had a very distinctive modus operandi, which should have made it easy to link the cases and, indeed, to track him down. I suspect if he'd concentrated on picking up women from railway stations on their way home from work, the police would have been onto it a lot quicker, but when it's drunken women making their way home from a night out, that old 'contributory negligence' rears its ugly head again.

And on this, I stand by the point I was making in my 'what is a women's issue?' post, about how we can't just deal with 'women's issues' within a women-only silo. The debate about rape should be taken to the men, discussed amongst young lads at school (after all, the majority of rapes are not 'stranger rapes' by deranged serial rapists), along with other issues such as domestic violence, unplanned pregnancies, and generally, treating women with respect. This message needs to be reinforced by male role models. And taken up by male politicians. Men are, it's a fact, more likely to listen when it's men doing the talking. I'd like to see Gordon intervening on this, not just leaving it to Jacqui and Harriet and Vera. And how about Cameron asking him about it at PMQs this week?

Just a list of things to do tomorrow...

I don't know why I always end up staying up to watch 'This Week' on a Thursday, when I've arrived home late from London and I've got a really busy day to follow and, more to the point, it's rubbish (Bruce Forsyth talking about US politics? Lord Levy posing on a tennis court? Andrew Neil just being Andrew Neil?)

My first appointment tomorrow is at Trinity Road police station, to talk to an officer about vice and drugs. Then it's Refugee Action, to talk about Government policy on asylum seekers. Then the office, to sign letters and to take a scheduled phone call from the Department of Health. Then I''m off to the brand new Bristol Metropolitan school (formerly Whitefield Fishponds) - I'm really looking forward to that as I've visited a number of times when building was in progress and I've heard that the new school is phenomenal. After that it's the launch of an after school club at Air Balloon school. Then it's the second meeting of the fledging Somali forum in Barton Hill. And then our monthly Labour Party meeting (and I've just realised I haven't written my GC report to members and won't have time to do it tomorrow... oh dear).

Lord Levy is now talking about the 10p tax rate. I'm off to bed.