Leadership is about being brave, principled and taking tough decisions even when such actions may not immediately help your own cause.

Today David Cameron made a speech in East London.  He set out how he would start to rebuild trust in our political system - a challenge that should not be under-estimated.  Among the many very welcome commitments was a pledge that any petition with 100,000 signatures will be eligible for a parliamentary debate; and any petition with 1 million+ signatures would lead to a Bill being presented to Parliament.  

There will be times when parliamentarians will despair of ever having introduced this power.  That is how it should be!  MPs are there to represent the public who elect them.  And I believe the more they are seen to be 'in touch' with the feeling of the public, the more politics will seem relevant to the public.

These may seem like small measures, but think how little direct influence members of the public have over legislators at the moment.  Suddenly, under these proposals, there will be a real purpose to debate among the public - and not only in the run up to elections.  In addition to a reduction in the number and cost of MPs and greater transparency over issues like remuneration, and stronger limits on political lobbyists, today's speech proves who has the required leadership qualities in Westminster.