The first hopeful look into the future?

Tomorrow is a very special day. It's the anniversary of the first televised leaders' debate, and subsequent launch of Clegg-mania. It's also the anniversary of the sad realisation that we can be fooled.
Just because Clegg managed to smile without looking like a serial killer, and managed to talk without looking like he had descended from pure evil, we loved him. Public discourse and Clegg had a short-lived, lovely marriage, unlike the two parties soon to unite as a coalition.

The coalition formed whilst we sat at home and speculated. It happened behind closed doors, away from news cameras and journalists, and resulted in something we didn't want nor vote for. Since then, we've had a coalition where, due to initial compromises, we've had broken promises and the Government have proceeded to cut spending in a way we don't all agree with. 'Coalition' has been given only negative connotations over the past year.

We, as a nation, have lost hope. Job cuts to front-line services, MPs being jailed for their expenses... we've lost trust in those that control almost every aspect of our lives. This is why we desperately need reform. Not the kind of 'NHS reform' that's basically bad news nicely wrapped in the idea of improvement. We need electoral reform, where the power can be redistributed to us. We need real reform that betters our relationship with our MPs, which in turn means we are better represented in Parliament.

I'm not suggesting that the Alternative Vote will magically solve all that is wrong with our 'democracy', but by voting 'yes', you can look back on a time when we had a corrupt voting system where our MPs made it into Parliament with 3/10 votes, and breathe a sigh of relief that your vote now counts.