Political debate is HOT

Well, I'd kind of thought it for a long time. There's not many a social occasion that you go to in this country before someone starts talking politics, and the Electoral Commission have confirmed that UK citizens have 14.5 million political conversations between them every day!

What's more, whilst we are happy to talk politics amongst ourselves, we are less than happy talking to politicians or at more formal political events about those same issues. Is this just the reserved British, or is it an indication that we don't give much credence to the official political channels?