Professor David Farrell:

I do not think the electoral system is the feature, as is often made out, that is causing a lot of these issues. I believe the issue is a poor interface between the public service and the citizens. It simply is poor and having spent 20 years in Britain, I can see that myself. I also think it is the weakness of our local government and so there is this sense on the part of the average citizens that if there is something they need to get done and they cannot find the answer to the question anywhere else, they will contact the Member of Parliament because they know the Member of Parliament will do it for them. It is this issue about the demands on our parliamentarians that needs to be fixed. While changing the electoral system might be part of a bigger mix of change, it would not, in and of itself, do much to change things.