Very refreshing column by Tim Garton Ash I like the description of the public fury and sense of dishonour over the MPs expenses scandal as a 'great awakening'. Overdue, of course. For some of us the nightmare was the endless acceptance by compliant MPs of a rotten order. Also, Garton Ash sees the need for citizen action, the missing link (so far) in the awakening. We need organised, democractic agency, the one thing the political elite is desperate to head off.
PS: Tim is rightly sceptical of an elected replacement of the Lords and asks for other ideas. Could Keith Sutherland send him a copy of the Athenian Option with its corruscating analysis of Jack Straw's proposed Lords reform package and the best idea so far for what to do, namely, sortition? (Declaration of scandelous self-interest, I'm the co-author along with Peter Carty).
