Five years ago, the Power Inquiry was set up to report on the state of British democracy. The commission, funded by the Rowntree Trusts and which I chaired, was asked to look at why people were not voting and why people no longer joined the political parties.
Like projects such as Charter 88, The Democratic Audit, and Make Votes Count, the Power inquiry documented a systemic failure which, over the last two decades, the political class has assiduously ignored. It revealed a profound public disillusionment. That malaise, contrary to what we were told by political insiders who made submissions to the inquiry, was a result not of apathy or affluence or contentment or ignorance, but of people feeling their vote made no difference. They believe politicians will promise the earth before an election but fail to deliver. They think too many politicians are fired by self-interest and careerism rather than by a passion to make our society better. And while we found that the public are interested in politics and are socially concerned, they feel utterly alienated from political institutions and formal democracy.
This recent, shameful farrago over MPs' expenses has undoubtedly turned that disillusion into rage. Lord Acton said that power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely. It seems the more appropriate contemporary take on his words is that power is delightful and absolute power is absolutely delightful.
The unethical behaviour that has been exposed is leaving the public filled with contempt but what our political masters have to realise is that securing payment for bath plugs and moat-cleaning, and flipping homes for property speculation is not even half of it, and a quick fix on allowances will not solve the problem of public distrust.
Just as insidious as defrauding the public purse is the presence of non-doms (non-UK domiciles) in the House of Lords, who do not pay their taxes yet can vote on the legislature and play a powerful part in government. We also have peers making themselves available to lobbying firms for a fee to oil the legislative wheels in favour of well-heeled clients. And what about ministers and senior advisers leaving office to take up hugely remunerated roles in the private sector, holding positions for which their only conceivable qualification is inside knowledge and contact?
None of this is new. The privatisation of public utilities during the Thatcher years led to similar questionable directorships and consultancies of former politicians and their advisers. The role of money-stuffed brown envelopes and secret meetings with Saudi princes in the Paris Ritz during the Major demise should not be forgotten.
What was created in the Thatcher years was a culture in which everything and everyone had to be measured by material worth. She resisted any increase of salaries for MPs when it was suggested they might be paid at a rate commensurate with county or crown court judges. She thought the electorate would not swallow salaries that were too high: much preferable that a set of increments be introduced to jack up MPs' salaries, without the public being aware.
Unfortunately, instead of New Labour introducing a new way of doing politics, it rubbed shoulders with the banking classes and bought into the culture of greed. At least the Freedom of Information Act ended that, though not without a struggle.
This waywardness in the political sphere goes beyond personal gain. It also means fudging statistics and cherry-picking research as has happened in the Home Office; it means manufacturing dodgy dossiers on intelligence as happened in the run-up to the Iraq war. It means public consultation exercises which are purely cosmetic and where the outcome has been decided in advance. But the public have been smelling a rat for a long time.
The temptation for the parties will be to sack a few people and redesign the allowance system but if public trust is to be restored there has to be a much more radical rethink. There has to be root-and-branch reform of parliament, both the Lords and the Commons, a written constitution, proportional representation, proper funding of political parties, a real curb on commercial lobbying, extended powers for select committees and fewer powers for the whips, a proper pay structure for MPs, more participative democracy and a re-ignition of local government to create new avenues for people to enter the world of politics. Any and all reforms must be guided by the knowledge that what people most want is an ethical political system. It is a moment to be seized and if the government is courageous enough it could even change its fortunes.
Helena Kennedy QC is a member of the House of Lords. She was chair of Charter 88 from 1992 to 1997 and chair of the Power inquiry from 2005 to 2006 www.helenakennedy.co.uk