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the Tory and Liberal Democrat leaders . . will address a conference staged by the Power Commission, which issued a landmark report in February calling for urgent reforms to prevent "meltdown" - including the introduction of proportional representation at general elections as demanded by The Independent's Campaign for Democracy.

The conference will be told by members of the Power Commission that large-scale reforms of party funding, the voting system, the House of Lords, and the control of power by the Government are now urgent. It will also be told that lack of faith in politics and disillusion with the political system are now so endemic that it cannot be left to politicians to solve themselves.

. . commission members want the Government to adopt all the report's central planks, including an end to the first-past-the-post system, rather adopting a "pick and mix" approach.

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Fewer than one in three eligible young people are expected to vote in this week's local elections.

"A lot of young people are very mobile these days - moving about all over, so where do they vote? We're not so entrenched in our communities as we once were," says Hunjan. The first-past-the-post constituency system might have had its day, she believes: "If we move over to a system of proportional representation, our political parties would really need to raise their game."

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[ 03 May 2006: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]

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..." she says. "But when it comes to going out and putting their cross in the box they are not taking part." Earnshaw puts this down to a different consumerist attitude to the vote, rather than the "civic duty" of old.

Young people believe politicians should "make a case for why I should vote, why I should bother", she says.

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I see this as rationalizing laziness since, at the very least, one might vote for the least offensive.

Ultimately, the youth of Canada have a far more hopeful situation...But the youth of the United States and Britain do not. The NDP is a sufficient party for the youth here to vote for and for us university students if we're not in our riding we can always just take the initiative and vote early or just vote in the riding of our school residence.