Parliament in peril
It is a toxic cocktail. As thousands of people lose their jobs each week in Britain, the vast majority of voters think that the country's MPs are on the make, milking the system for their own gain, putting self-interest ahead of the country, of constituents - even of their own party.
reveals a nation which has lost patience with its Parliament. A remarkable 85% of people want to strip MPs of their power to police themselves. They would prefer an independent judicial body to scrutinise the activities of members, an idea which turns democracy on its head.
Such is the crisis of confidence in the Westminster system that, instead of elected representatives controlling Parliament, the public apparently prefers unelected judges. Only 8% of people positively oppose the concept of external scrutiny - although one suspects that many, if not most, MPs would side with the 8%.
It is one thing to feel angry at politicians on the fiddle, quite another to blame the Parliamentary system and demand such revolutionary reform.
Six out of ten voters support the idea of an independent inquiry into the whole expenses scandal - however much it costs and however long it takes.
Again, this reflects a belief that only people from outside the Westminster bubble can be trusted to sort out this mess.
Three years ago, just 46% of people said that they thought that MPs used their power for personal gain. Today, it is 78%.
The poll reveals an electorate which believes in large measure that MPs are liars and cheats while our system of Parliamentary democracy is in desperate need of radical reform.
Not since the heady days of the have so many voters said that they think the system of governing Britain needs substantial improvement - 35% felt it did in 1995 and 37% think so now.
If there is any positive news from this poll, it is that 84% of people still think members need expenses in order to ensure that people from all walks of life can become MPs. Some hope too for those politicians who emerge unscathed from the scandal - asked whether they trusted their own MP to tell the truth, 40% agreed they did (compared with 20% who thought MPs generally were honest).
On a sunny day in SW1, visitors pose in front of the Palace of Westminster smiling for the cameras. Across the road on Parliament Square, visible protest is limited to a few anti-war protesters and a handful of Tamils.
But the picture painted by this poll suggests that there is nothing benign about the British people's relationship with its Parliament at the moment.
Surrounded by the paraphernalia of security - counter-terror barriers, concrete blocks, and armed police - the Palace of Westminster has not in living memory appeared so separated from the people it supposedly serves.
Deep distrust of our democratic system comes just at the time when the country needs to trust its representatives to steer them through an economic crisis. It would be unwise, perhaps, to underestimate the danger we may be in.
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