It's been weeks since I read your book. I have to admit it seems strange to me that some people find it depressing. I personally found it uplifting and hopeful. It simply confirmed what I already knew but there it was, in public, in print for all to see.

It seems that Australians, and democratic populations generally, have forgotten what Democracy is and what it's supposed to be. Margo, your next book should be a Democratic tutorial - 'Democracy for Dummies'? I'm serious. You could write it by interviewing politicians from all parties over a couple of schooners of beer and getting them to declare themselves, to put in print their names and their idea of their contract with the Australian people. What I've gleaned from the Liberal voters I know is that they care more for the money than the system of government, which is to say the product rather than the process. This is not to say the ALP, Dems or Greens voters are not similarly weighted towards their own concerns. There seems to be some idea that our government is 'stable' and therefore that our system of government could never be undermined - after all, we do get to vote every few years, don't we? So any concerns about the system itself are unnecessary, unproductive, navel-gazing, blah blah blah. If we could put forward the more correct idea of Democracy as a process rather than an edifice, the inherent fragility and demands of that process will be obvious.

So, in closing, put me down for 3 copies of 'Democracy for Dummies'.