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Jon Lawrence's book, Electing Our Masters: the Hustings in British Politics from Hogarth to Blair, was published this March by OUP. Now he has turned his attention to the next election and the urgent need for real-life political interaction. In this paper on ‘The hustings, broadcasters and the future of democracy' in the History & Policy series, he calls on broadcasters to reinvent the old, irreverent spirit of the hustings to ‘deliver both dramatic television and serious democratic politics.' We have a long and valuable tradition of politicians submitting themselves to rigorous interrogation by the general public - one that he has chronicled in detail -  but only broadcasters can now ensure that that tradition survives and flourishes in the twenty-first century.

The problem as he sees it remains residual paternalism and ‘that fear of abandoning professional control'. And the brief recent history that he gives contains few encouraging signs of a major step forward - broadcasters seem only slightly less cautious than their political masters. But Lawrence is clear,  ‘Further expansion of 'vox pop' coverage will not do. Political interaction must lie at the heart of a healthy democracy, and broadcasting is uniquely placed to help facilitate that interaction between public and politicians.'  He is also calling for new ‘public rituals ‘ that bring politicians and public together: ‘Candidates could be selected at open public 'primaries', official nomination hustings could be held in every constituency, and broadcasters could be encouraged to hold Question Time-style encounters across the country during an election, using new technologies to throw them open to the Facebook generation.'

Lawrence lays considerable emphasis on ritual, drama and the ‘theatre and entertainment that must be at the heart' of politics if it is to connect, but this does not dilute his ambition for such encounters between the public and their politicians. His aim is the kind of interaction that ‘allows ordinary voters a chance, not just to have their say, but actually to hold their political masters to account.'

Robert Spain reviews Richard Berry, Independent: The Rise of the Non Aligned Politician, (Societas, 2008, 154pp).

"Why don't they get people who people is heard of. Why don't they get, like, Frank Bruno standing... the good thing about celebrities is you know what they is like. Otherwise you get an MP and then you find out after a year that they is, like, you know, sleeping with horses." Ali G interviewing Tony Benn.

In a case of life imitating art, one of the corollaries of the recent MPs' expenses scandals is the possibility that Esther Rantzen might become my local MP. I am not sure that I know what she stands for nor am I convinced that an election campaign based around the need to combat sleaze would necessarily enlighten me. Yet in constituencies across the country something similar is a possibility. David Cameron attempted to harness this feeling and limit the threat it poses to the Tories, when he promised to "refresh" his party by allowing independents with no Tory experience to stand for selection as MPs.

Richard Berry's somewhat presciently timed book examines the phenomenon of independents, focusing upon successful independent candidates, at both national and local elections. The cases covered are all from during Tony Blair's premiership, a commonality not properly explored in the book: although Berry makes the point that independent candidates have been gaining support since 1997, he also notes in passing that some will claim that "this is a rather routine phenomenon for British politics". The sparse use Berry makes of statistics means that he does not conclusively prove his case but he does open up some interesting questions, showing that from 1997 to 2005 independent candidates received a rising percentage of votes in general elections and reminding us that almost 50% of mayoral elections have been won by an independent.

It's worth reading the editorial in today's Mail. It's a furious denunciation of a venal political class that has given up on even the pretence of reforming Parliament.  It's as if the last few months of flipping, moats and duck houses have taught us nothing, with potentially disastorous implications for our democracy, as the Mail points out. The Parliamentary Standards Bill MPs rushed through in time for their 82-day holiday creates an independent body to monitor expenses but it will be up to Parliament itself to consider any punishment. The plans for a legally binding Code of Conduct were removed from the Bill by MPs with the connivance of Jack Straw.

The parallel with the failure to properly reform the banking system is striking. Self-regulation is still the watchword. Any threat of serious sanction for lying and corruption has been carefully and deliberately avoided. Like the bankers they so obediently service, politicians will return to business as usual at the earliest possible opportunity. The comfortable victory of Chloe Smith in Norwich North today only confirms this sense. The Tory landslide it heralds makes the prospect of serious democratising change less and less likely by the day. Smith, the first Tory MP to have come of voting age under New Labour, seems friendly and she certainly looks good on TV but listen to what she has to say and she seems capable of little more than Cameronian doublespeak. She may have defeated Labour in the polls, but her arrival confirms the victory of Blairism.

This brings me to a fascinating report on politicians I was given by a friend who works for a PR company (I'll link to it if I can find it). It shows the "top" PPCs for each party i.e those that are most likely to win their seats. There is little to tell the Labour and the Tory ones apart. Nearly all of them seem to have spent their lives in politics. Of the 7 Labour ones, at least 5 went to Oxford (it could be more - it doesn't say where the others went).  Of those 5, three studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics, the same subject as Cameron and Miliband (to name but two possible future PMs). I hope to do a proper analysis of the report soon because it's extremely enlightening. I mention it here because it shows how the problem of an elite, detached and professionalised political class - which the Mail, especially Peter Oborne, does such a great job highlighting - is going to get much worse following the next election when a new wave of party clones is brought in. Relying on politicans to give us an open responsive democracy really does seem a lost cause.

In her victory speech, Smith claimed she will be as "honest" as Ian Gibson. As honest, that is, as an MP who claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers' money for a "second home" inhabited by his daughter which he then sold to her at knock down rate. Plus ca change, eh?

This letter appears in today's Guardian:

Well done to Nick Clegg (MPs' holiday betrayal, 22 July): first, for his protest against the way the two main parties are trying to sweep the expenses crisis under a carpet of minor changes; and, second, for connecting this to the financial crisis. Two months ago both the prime minister and the leader of the opposition were competing with the Lib Dems in their calls to transform the system in the face of a catastrophic loss of trust. Brown called for "a written constitution", Cameron for giving "power to the powerless". Clegg demanded change in "100 days", having pointed out that he had distinguished himself by demanding an end to a "rotten system" all along.

But there was an important shift in the Lib Dem position too, which we hope Clegg's contribution means he at least will stick with. His party officials had said constitutional issues did not support on the doorsteps. Now public disenchantment with the governing classes, both political and financial, is tangible.

As the Guardian has argued, we need A New Politics. This calls for wide non-partisan demand for thorough reform that appeals to all voters. We aim to contribute to this with an open politics network: Real Change. The fury of voters that no one seems to represent them, and that MPs and Lords permit each other to profit at our expense, exposes us all to the dangers of populism. It is also an opportunity to make reform happen.

Guy Aitchison, Anthony Barnett

www.realchange.uk.net