WHAT IS IT with Martin Lee Chu-ming and his Democrats that they never seem to be able to get their heads outside of a courthouse door?
When not devoting their energies entirely to fine points of law in relations with Beijing, they revert to type as a collection of barristers who offer themselves as populist mouthpieces to any cause that relies on whinge and complaint.
We all know what you are against, Mr Lee, but what are you for? Where are your proposals for the broad range of public policy issues that face us?
There was some reason to think we would have a clue to them at last with a piece by Mr Lee published in this newspaper on Tuesday (Listen to the people, Mr Tung). Here would be the Democrats' policy platform on the economy.
But what did Mr Lee recommend? Essentially nothing is your answer. He wants Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to consult the public through an 'economic convention'.
Now let us get it straight immediately that I am all for public consultation and side with the Democrats entirely in their criticisms of the sham democracy we practise.
Equally, however, Mr Lee seems to misunderstand the role of a political party in a democracy. It is to conduct just this sort of public consultation itself and thus arrive at a political platform that represents the views of a broad cross-section of the population. It is done before, not after, standing for election or making a call to action.