Anecdotal evidence suggests that most people are looking forward to next week’s local elections with the same level of enthusiasm they reserve for invasive dental work or rush hour journeys through the Dartford Tunnel.

Opinion polls show that trust in politicians remains spectacularly low, as they continue to give journalists and Post Office executives a run for their money in the national unpopularity contest.

This reductive view is probably based largely on the unappealing public face of politics presented on television.

Those who crave the limelight are generally the sort of attention-seekers you would least like to represent your profession. Journalists know how this feels whenever some deadbeat is thrust in front of the cameras to defend the worst excesses of the national press.

The politicians we see on television are often the sort of people who just enjoy arguing and point-scoring in front of an audience; expressing faux outrage and generally putting on some kind of performance to impress their own tribe, a bit like they’re still at university. It’s not hard work.

Very little of this grandstanding makes viewers think that these people - wrapped up in their own vanity - are making the slightest bit of difference to their everyday lives.

Conversely, politicians who work at a local level tend to do the unseen, practical work that won’t win you a cheer from the (consistently angry) Question Time audience but might improve someone’s journey to work or their housing prospects.

Of course, not all local politicians are noble creatures working purely for the good of their community. Many harbour ambitions to join the army of show-offs on the national stage. Some might even have become councillors by mistake, propelled unexpectedly by national events into a position of responsibility they don’t really want after drunkenly agreeing to put their name on the ballot paper.

But with the local elections coming up, we should perhaps take a more charitable view of those fighting for our votes and willing to do some of the hard but unglamourous work on the ground.

Despite what social media might have you think, a majority of voters care more about having their roads repaired or their rubbish emptied than they do about identity politics, the conflict in the Middle East or whether Brexit is to blame for a particular problem.

But wheelie bins rarely make for a fiery debate and an impassioned speech about potholes in a town hall is unlikely to appeal to TV producers, so don’t expect much change to the bickering, argumentative public face of politics.