Political parties, or at least the three principal parties currently represented in Parliament, are currently inspiring a blend of cynicism, criticism and apathy among the electorate.

They have increasingly been seen as both lacking in the capacity to meet the challenges facing Britain and undemocratic in their tendency to rely on spin, over-the-top discipline via the party whips, being constantly ‘on message’ and indulging in vacuous political posturing in parliamentary debates and Prime Minister’s question time.

The recent exposure of the business dealings of two former home secretaries has added further fuel to the fire of public hostility, whether or not their behaviour has actually ‘broken the rules’, given that the MPs expenses scandal of 2009-10 is recent enough not to have been forgotten.