All those who are interested in civic affairs are engaged in a guessing game right now – trying to anticipate the kind of landscape we will all face after the General Election. Few of us have ever experienced a campaign with so many uncertainties, and policy-makers have to consider three or four different scenarios for the post-ballot-box arithmetic

If our role is to engage with the public, or to organise consultations on matters of policy, there are some things which we can now predict with confidence. For example:

• The economic situation will dictate unprecedented public expenditure cuts and whoever is in office will need to manage substantial engagement with all manner of interests groups as they (legitimately) argue their corner.
  • The Party manifestos are full of proposals which are either tentative or down-right flaky. For the more obvious of these, the Parties have hedged their bets by saying that they will be subject to consultation. Electoral reform is only one among many.