PARTY politics rarely fails to get in the way of a useful discussion. Take this week’s meeting of High Wycombe’s Charter Trustees, for instance, which involved a discussion on whether or not to push forward with a bid to get Wycombe its own town council.

It’s a reasonable idea – if Marlow and Princes Risborough have one, why shouldn’t Wycombe, the core town of the district? As it is, smaller locations like Speen or Hughenden have such representation when the main town itself doesn’t. There are, of course, pros and cons to such a move that you would hope could be debated in a meaningful way.

But this particular apolitical meeting seems to have taken on some partisan qualities along the way, leading to the farcical outcome we reported on.

In this case, of course, it is questionable over whether such a meeting was the correct forum for the discussion, but even so – not a chance was missed in lowering the quality of debate.

Exercises in political hijacking are not isolated to meetings like this. There are plenty of examples where strong points set to be raised by MPs in the Commons have been diluted by party politics, with time on the floor granted in exchange for the minister in question cheaply reframing their point so as to take a swipe at the opposition party.

We see it all the time, too, in points raised by parties both local and national. Worthwhile issues, of health, education and economy, that are worth airing are all too often contorted and reshaped into weapons to batter the opposition with instead. And almost inevitably the original point gets mangled in the process, leaving issues in need of address buried beneath the wreckage of a pointless and often borderline childish exercise in one-upmanship.

More importantly, it gets harder and harder to avoid cynicism about such rabble-raising. How can we tell where the real point ends and the political agenda begins?

And all that once again must surely fuel the apathy people so widely feel about politics these days. Our elected officials, whether local or national, should be working to improve our area and country. They are not meant to be professional arguers, after all, even if they too often seem to think that is what their job description should be.

Party politics are, of course, a fact of life in our democratic system and it is only right that different parties reflect different values and opinions. But sometimes they are just trying too hard, and the abiding impression we are left with is a bunch of squabbling kids who have quaffed down too many e-number ridden sweeties.