I have been back in the interviewing business. I spent yesterday afternoon talking to a man about a decision which will affect me and my family, and 350 others. The stakes were high. Urbanely, this man dominated the agenda as these people are wont to do. When I look back through his transcript I realise he must have had a briefing sheet in front of him and an agenda to philibuster. And I’m surrounded by a forest of facts and opinions, by firebrands just like me and cerebral, cool thinkers completely unlike me. All of us have this issue with my interview subject. But no-one has a voice.

In certain areas, my subject reminded me, there is no democracy. Too right, I rejoined…no one has spoken a word to any of us about what is happening; a petition has been carefully extinguished; some of the main voices with a livelihood linked to my subject’s area have been told, in no uncertain terms, to stay quiet. And all this is happening amidst a growing fear that no-one is interested in listening: they are simply interested in getting the deal sealed and done.

This is what journalists are for. They are our society’s checks and balances. They throw open the windows onto dusty darkened corners, sometimes at great jeapoardy to themselves. They are essential. In the playground they tell you: if you are oppressed, tell, tell, tell.

So: that’s my job. If we are not given a voice then it’s time to open the windows, get some fresh air into the room, and tell, tell, tell.