Interest in politics still high, poll shows

Of course this is very intersting given how cynical and apathetic people are about the political process. I wonder whether it is because of a confluence of several things. One is a stream of single issue concerns which are badly represented and handled by the main political parties. I suspect that the showing of the UK Independence Party in the Euro elections says something about the latent power of single-issue politics. There is a stream about distrusting institutions including parliament and political parties. There is a stream that is simply cynical about career politicians and there is also a stream that simply doesn't really understand or want to understand the art of the possible as opposed the unlikeliness of the desirable.

What it all seems to me to suggest is that reforms of the current means of democratic expression may be well and good but they are limited since some things that are central to it are what are implicated in the dissatisfaction. What we need is another way of doing democratic politics, probaly alongside and in addition to the current processes and instruments which are accoutable and tested and widely understood at least in principle.

So I will reiterate my call to think again about what we are doing with reform of the second chamber. How about we put people into it who represent voluntary organisations which are largley single-issue: religious groups, charities community networks etc. [anyone but political parties] They would need to have a reasonable sized membership [paid-up members or donors] -say equivalent to a political constituency- to gain a seat and would have more seat for suitable mulitples of that 'constituency'. At a stroke we would bring churches, mosque federations, Greenpeace, coutnryside alliance, CBI, trades unions into a scritinising and dialogical role with government at the heart of government. The mandate of these groups would be their popular support and their expertise in the area[s] of their advocacy.
What about it?
Guardian Unlimited Politics | Special Reports | Interest in politics still high, poll shows