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"There is absolutely no room for anyone to trade on their ministerial office. People come into politics ‑ whether Labour, Tory or Lib Dem – because of what they want to do for the country. And I believe that's true for MPs across all parties, I don't think this is a partisan point."Anything which sullies that reputation or gets in the way of that public service is completely inimical. I think it's right that we have tightened up the rules already ... but the Labour manifesto is going to say more about the need for a statutory register of the lobbying industry, because there is absolutely no room for the sort of innuendo or promises that seem to have been floated in this case."

All the power has been centred on finance and the financial model and, funnily enough, we have just hocked our entire economy to save that broken system. From the coasteering teams in Wales to the boxing clubs of the potteries I sense a deep frustration with this absence of voice and power that traditional politics just does not capture.

I believe the business of government should be more business-like – that the British people are the boss and like any employer they deserve to know about the performance of their team. And so I am proposing the following.Firstly, Sir Tim Berners Lee, the man most associated with the invention of the internet, is the government’s advisor on data openness and transparency all across the internet. In the months to come he will be ensuring that there is the maximum possible information available to the public at all times. This rapid extension of transparency will show in real time how government are delivering against our pledges.Secondly, I will set out a clear and public annual contract for each new Cabinet Minister, detailing what I expect them and their department to deliver to the British people, and that their continued appointment is dependent on their delivery just as it would be in a business or any other organisation. Thirdly, I will require the Cabinet Secretary to performance manage the Permanent Secretary of each department against their delivery of pledges and other priorities as set out in the letter of appointment.

When I went out and disgraced myself in public – as I did many times – I could silence the diary columns by calling a fellow editor. There are stories I could tell that you wouldn't believe. I was untouchable. I was cocooned and protected, a "made man", an unelected member of a tiny elite that runs the country and never has to pay a price.

When I went out and disgraced myself in public – as I did many times – I could silence the diary columns by calling a fellow editor. There are stories I could tell that you wouldn't believe. I was untouchable. I was cocooned and protected, a "made man", an unelected member of a tiny elite that runs the country and never has to pay a price.

Moving on to Iraq, did he ever feel like resigning over it? "No... It wasn't weapons of mass destruction or the issue about regime change that was important to me. To me, the important thing was, if you are creating a global community - which is what we are trying to do after the Cold War - you cannot have countries that persistently defy the international community by refusing to abide by their obligations."

"I understand the anger over Iraq, I do - because people feel that they were given information that turned out not to be correct.

But the poll also reveals deep disenchantment with the overall political process. Only 4 per cent of voters think that the parties are being totally honest with voters over their tax plans and only 6 per cent think they are being honest about cutting the deficit. Most worryingly for David Cameron as he tries to regain the lead enjoyed by the Conservatives two years ago, more voters are now hoping for a hung Parliament than either a Tory or Labour victory. A senior Tory told The Times: “This is a phoney war right now, but that’s not because of any lack of fighting. It’s because they think we’re all fakes.”

“How would you vote on May 6 if you thought the Liberal Democrats had a significant chance of winning the election”. The responses: Lib Dem 49%, Conservative 25%, Labour 19%. On the – admittedly unrealistic – assumption of uniform national swing, there would be 548 Lib Dem MPs, 41 Labour MPs and just 25 Tories.

But Mr Brown stressed his credentials as a leader who wanted to reform politics, adding: "We have to show people we are in the business of the new politics and we have a plan for that as well as the economy. “I don't think people have yet focused on that. We're serious about change. That is my mission.

This sounds like an oblique reference to the Iraq war, which Ed Miliband said led to "a catastrophic loss of trust" and Ed Balls condemned as "wrong." Asked directly about those remarks, he says: "The purpose of these elections is how we build a better tomorrow, not how we debate a better yesterday." Is that a rebuke to his brother? "No, it's just my position." But I suspect that David Miliband, who – unlike the two Eds – had a vote in 2003, still agonises over Iraq. Nor, with the Chilcot inquiry reconvened, and the war raised at every hustings and meeting, can it easily be consigned to history. "I've done Chilcot. I've said if I knew then what I know now, I wouldn't have [backed] it." Is he saying the war should never have been fought? "The way I put it is that if we knew then what we know now, there wouldn't have been a war. I've set out that if we knew there were no WMD, there would have been no UN resolutions and no war. "The toll in British and Iraqi life, never mind the toll in trust, has been very, very high. It's a war we didn't need to fight," he says before reverting to his previous formula, saying he is mindful of the dead and doesn't want to "rewrite my own history." He pauses, conscious that he has gone further than he intended. But his regrets and reservations over Iraq sound at least equal to those of his brother and Mr Balls? "Of course. People are dead. I voted in good faith." Did his brother ever express his misgivings to him? "I'm not getting into opening up private discussions," he says. "He was in America at the time." The other lingering issue of his old brief will surface shortly, with the Government expected to announce a judge-led inquiry into claims that British intelligence agencies were complicit in the torture of terrorism suspects. Mr Miliband hotly denies any policy of collusion. "I would not be sitting here if I thought there was the slightest suspicion of a doubt that a Labour government had any entanglement in torture." On last week's High Court order that M15 and M16 release guidelines alleged to tell British agents to turn a blind eye to the treatment of terrorism suspects abroad, he says. "After 2001, there was insufficient training and guidelines. That has been superseded and new guidelines put in place."

If David Cameron, a man who has many sterling qualities and does have the capacity for greatness, does turn out to be a true heir to Blair, in the sense that he's just as deceitful, then it will be a calamity for Britain. It would mean that the direction of our national affairs had fallen into the hands of a narrow political class which is utterly devoid of morality and with it, the ability to connect with ordinary people. It would suggest that the cynics really are correct and that there really is no difference between the main political parties, and that leading politicians - in their bond of deceitfulness - have far more in common with each other than they do with ordinary voters. It would suggest that something terrible happens to British politicians when they get office and they at once start to lie and cheat.

In 1980, 8 per cent of US earners received 16 per cent of national income. That same proportion now falls into the hands of the top 1 per cent, while the top 20 per cent take over half. There is a similar concentration of wealth in the UK. Politicians have good reason to fear a new western world in which a small minority continues to prosper and spend prodigiously, while the living standards of middle earners decline.

It is also important that the cuts agenda does not deflect from wider reforms. First, the civil service and ministerial merry-go-round needs to be ended, with project management skills improved. In 2009, I became the fifth transport secretary in barely three years. In my previous three-and-a-half years as schools minister, I served under three secretaries of state in a department renamed and reorganised twice. This is no way to run the country.It is a similar story with the civil service, which is often far from permanent or expert, despite its image. As schools minister, driving forward the multibillion pound academy schools policy to replace failing schools, the biggest single obstacle I faced was the weakness of the Whitehall machine. In eight years I saw six directors of the academies programme come and go, for reasons entirely divorced from the requirements of the programme. All were capable, but policymaking and project management skills were often lacking.

Reversing a century of centralisation

The coalition government is beginning to rewrite the rules of British politics. It is of course still early days. We are six months into one of the boldest experiments in British politics, six months into a five year coalition government.

Old progressives measure success by the power and spending of the central state. New progressives measure it by the power and freedom of individual citizens.