David Blunkett on why our political class are despised

As the Labour Party conference gets underway, former Home and Education Secretary David Blunkett has issued a stark warning in today's Daily Mail about the decline in trust towards the political class. His analysis is not so far off that off Independent founder Andreas Whittam Smith, whose response was Democracy2015.

Blunkett writes today: "Faith in the traditional political process has never been lower than it is today. There is a widening chasm between voters and Westminster. The authority of Parliament has substantially declined, while trust in ministers and MPs has evaporated. The political class, as it is now called in derogatory tones, is seen as out-of-touch and self-indulgently obsessed with issues of no real concern to the mainstream public, such as the reform of the House of Lords or European integration. Philip Gould, the brilliant Labour strategist who sadly died last year, used to say modern politicians were like footballers playing at empty grounds: the crowds have lost interest and left."