ABSTRACT
Public disaffection with the process of politics in Britain is now widely recognised. Social surveys show how little trust the British people have in their politicians and how deep their alienation is from the political institutions which govern them. (See Panel 22.) Politicians and commentators acknowledge the fact. But this has occasioned almost no public reflection on why, or on what could be done about it; still less has it led to any kind of concerned response. The complacency with which the guardians of national democracy treat its decline is perhaps itself the strongest evidence of the need for reform.
