As the political parties engage in horse-trading in closed sessions to argue about what will emerge from last Thursday's UK General Election, a powerful grass roots movement is emerging to challenge the cosy political domination of the major parties and press for an electoral system that puts power back to the people.
Take Back Parliament is a coalition of different groups and organisations in the call for fair votes, including POWER2010, Unlock Democracy. Electoral Reform Society and Vote for a Change, and also many individuals who are disgusted at their lack of representation in the current political carve-up.
Events are developing fast in the negotiations between the Liberal Democrats and the other parties, and the demonstrations last Saturday, today in at the weekend appear to be playing a part in ensuring that reform of our political process stays at the head of the political agenda.
Approaching a thousand people, many wearing purple and some with purple marks on their faces or index fingers came to Palmer St in Westminster to demonstrate outside the building where the Liberal Democrats were meeting to discuss the progress in the negotiations. There they held placards and banners and chanted demanding a change to a fair voting system that would results in a Parliament that truly represents the votes of the British people.
Although many have felt for years that our current system was unsatisfactory, last Thursday's results underlined this, with a party getting only 36% of the overall vote claiming a mandate to form a government - although they don't quite have enough parliamentary seats to do so.
The two other main parties between them had 52% of the vote, but combined only got a few more members of parliament than the Tories, and at first seemed to be ruled out of the chance of forming a government, although the situation is currently changing fast, particularly following the decision of Gordon Brown to step down from the Labour leadership.
Many of us in the UK are now convinced that our political system encourages and rewards irresponsible political parties and that we need to move towards a system that works through coalition and agreement rather than the kind of polarised idiocy that is shown in some aspects of the current party manifestos. We need politicians who will work together in the national interest and a system that allows a wide range of views to be represented.
A number of those present also expressed disquiet at the way our present system - and all three major parties - is dominated by 'men in suits', overwhelmingly members of a few elite professions and those who have attended a small number of schools and universities and were calling for a radical change in our whole political system with the end of a political class and involving politicians more representative of the population as a whole.
The Take Back Parliament coalition represents not just the organisations backing it, but a wide movement among the people, many of whom are still incensed by the actions of politicians over the expenses scandal and for whom the election results were the last straw. The feelings were certainly reinforced by the scandal of thousands of would-be voters being denied the chance to vote on Thursday as polling stations ran out of ballot papers and long queues that formed in the last couple of hours of voting were not allowed to vote.
The colour purple chosen to stand for the movement is of course the colour of the suffragettes who fought for the last major change in our voting system when women were given the vote around 80 years ago - and is also conveniently not used by any of the major parties. One of the people walking openly into the Liberal Democrat meeting though the clear pathway left to the entrance of the building was wearing a purple tie, and several TV presenters have appeared in them today. But many of those attending the meeting didn't take the clear path in, but barged their way rudely through the crowd to try and get in without being seen by the demonstrators, which was perhaps not a good omen.
But despite this, the demonstration remained peaceful and good-natured, although determined to get their point across. There was a jazz group providing some fine music in the gaps between chanting and speeches, and among the speakers was Billy Bragg, whose high-profile campaigning in Dagenham helped the borough see off the BNP.
Much of the discussion now taking place on the media about our future government seems not to have caught up on the public mood, being still based entirely on the number of parliamentary seats won under the now discredited electoral system. But a significant part of the electorate has moved on, and for them the most significant aspect are the votes cast - under which a coalition of any two of the major political parties has a majority.
