Here has been more talk about reform to the political system in the past two months than in the last 30 years. Many proposals have been floated in the past only to be ignored, but now public and media interest has been aroused, changing things for the better has become irresistible.
Your views are needed now as never before to help rebuild our systems of governance. It is a debate we can all take part in and influence to make politics properly democratic and truly representative.
So far there has been a great deal of rhetoric but little action.
The Prime Minister is a recent convert to this debate while David Cameron has been very lukewarm in approaching any reform beyond that of MPs' expenses, and even then refusing to tackle MPs' capital gains from property dealings.
In the past the Liberal Democrats have been dismissed for their anti-traditionalist approach to the British constitution but now, as with the economy, the environment and so many other issues, the weight of media and public opinion has become aligned with our policies.
Now is the time not only for cautious reflection on how things have gone wrong in past decades but for radical solutions that give us a chance to renew and refresh our political system.
We simply must change the culture and way Government works otherwise we cannot change the things Government does. That culture extends way beyond the expenses and allowances system.
We need an electoral system that gets rid of safe seats and makes every vote count. We need a written constitution and a bill of rights that enshrines freedom of information and transparency in Government.
We need to devolve fiscal and decision making powers to local areas. We need an elected House of Lords.
We also need to cut the costs of Government, as St Ives MP Andrew George has proposed, by reducing the number of MPs to around 500 so that each represents around 100,000 electors.
That would work out nicely for Torbay where many voters in Brixham and parts of Paignton do not understand why the MP for Totnes, and not the MP for Torbay, is their voice in Parliament.
Without such reforms the only thing that will change after the next election will be a few faces on the green benches. Or as someone crudely put it, same trough, different snouts. I'm sure every MP is aware that most people are dissatisfied with some aspect of politics.
The complaints are wide ranging but the electoral system is the one that denies the public their voice at the decision making table.
A recent reminder was the Devon County Council election where the Conservatives won 66 per cent of the seats on less than 42 per cent of the vote. The majority of voters in Devon did not vote for a Tory controlled county council but that's what the electoral system gave them.
David Cameron has set himself against reforming the electoral system. It seems the attraction of majority power on a minority vote is still too seductive to propose that change, but there are growing numbers in all parties and none who want to see this long overdue reform.
Some have argued that proportional representation allows in extreme parties such as the BNP.
This is nonsense; more than 100 BNP representatives have been elected under first past the post, only two under the European election list system that no-one is proposing for Westminster.
First past the post has got to go. It was no coincidence that some of the most controversial expense claims revealed by the Daily Telegraph involved MPs in safe seats. Make every vote count and no MP can take the electorate for granted.
There is also the problem of openness and transparency, not just for MPs but for everything local and national Government does especially when taxpayers' money is passed on to quangos and consultants.
In 2001, I asked the Government to reveal just how much of our money is spent by non governmental bodies - quangos - which receive taxpayers' money from central government and take decisions which affect our lives.
In short I uncovered that unelected quangos spend more taxpayers' money than elected and accountable local authorities in the region.
In that year local authorities across the South West region spent just under £2.9 billion, while unelected quangos spent more than £5.3 billion.
I believe that the true figure of unaccountable spending is probably much higher, as many quangos did not provide a response to my request for figures.
This then is perhaps the biggest democratic deficit at the heart of our over centralised system of government. Decisions are taken about the expenditure of billions of pounds within our region by appointees of the Secretary of State and not by the people these decisions affect.
Such expenditure should be in the hands of people accountable through the ballot box and that could be an elected regional assembly while other decisions could be devolved to existing local councils.
The Liberal Democrat vision of regional government offers the opportunity to reduce the tiers of decision making we have identified, allow people to determine the boundaries of their region, bring quangos under democratic control, and save taxpayers money in the process.
The level of public involvement in local democracy is poor yet there is so much scope for getting involved in decision making.
We should never forget that decisions are made by those who turn up. Not getting involved allows others to take decisions and it is often too late to complain afterwards.
We now have a fantastic window of opportunity to change things for the better. The public have a unique chance to be in the driving seat for reform if they want to be. I hope they will take it.
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