IT'S that time of year again so I've been wandering round my ward in Colne chatting to people while posting leaflets.

I have to say that I have not been seen off, duckstooled or even had abuse shouted at me on the grounds that I am a politician. But I suppose there is still time!

But people do ask me what I think and I tell them. There are a few MPs who have fiddled the system of second home allowances to a shocking extent.

There are some others who have claimed stupidly for ridiculous items - most notoriously of all a duck house and cleaning the moat.

But most have just done what they have been advised to do by the people operating the system, which is exactly what most employees do.

No doubt some should have exercised more common sense - that's certainly what the vast majority of people think.

But it's not just the system of "pay and rations" that needs to change.

More and more people are coming to the view that this is not just a crisis, it's an opportunity for some big changes in our democratic system.

The problem with witch hunts is that the witchfinders are never satisfied.

Give the lynch mob a victim and they scream for more. Yet this is not 1789 in Paris.

We need to see beyond the scandals and the tittle-tattle to a sensible debate about what needs to be changed.

The more people call for changes, the more different ideas come forward.

Some are what is needed. Others would be worse.

This is why I don't think a General Election now is a good idea. All the parties, and everyone else who is interested, need to put together sensible, coherent but radical proposals. That will take a little time.

It's not going to happen until the present furore calms down. And there will not be 100% consensus, which is why we will then need an election to debate and decide between the different ideas.

But the election when it comes (in my view it should be in the autumn) really must not be about hounding out a few bad apples. It has to be about the future of our democratic system of government.