A view from the US in the New York Times on a political system “in urgent need of a root-and-branch overhaul that restores the accountability of politicians — and of the government — to the people”:

“The expense abuses are only the tip of a malaise that has seen Parliament grow ever more remote from the voters, and governments grow ever more oblivious of Parliament.

There have been no angry mobs storming the House of Commons, nor much of anything in the way of organized protest. But the mood of anger is palpable in every pub and on every bus and train. It concerns far more than the latest scandal, touching grievances that have been building gradually for at least 30 years — perhaps for nearly a century — about the growth of a self-serving political class, arrogant habits of rule and an inward-looking cadre of senior civil servants, for all of which the most appropriate adjective seems to be “high-handed.””