The problem with modern elections is that they are designed to actively prevent community debate about the big issues. It is not an accident, it is not the media’s fault (well not entirely), and it is not the fault of new technology and the 24- hour news cycle. It is simply the consequence of two major parties that are determined to ‘stay on message’. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Imagine if all political parties had to put all of their policies on the table four weeks before the election. Imagine if rather than dribbling little bits and pieces of policy out day after day they instead had to put forward their entire policy agenda at the beginning of the campaign.