By Dr Alexandra Kelso, Senior Lecturer in Politics

We are holding a special public event on Saturday 16 February here at the University of Southampton, a study day on the topic of Democracy: Problems and Prospects. PAIR experts will give short talks on why we seem to have so many problems with our democratic systems, and how we might address them. I’m giving a lecture on responses to the 2009 MPs expenses scandals, and will be examining the various suggestions put forward about how to ‘fix’ the Westminster parliament. Other colleagues and PhD students are also participating: Emma Thompson on ‘Anti-politics and public disengagement’, Russell Bentlely on ‘Mistrusting political speech’, Matt Ryan on ‘Democratic innovation’ and David Owen on ‘Democracy and disappointment’. The Study Day is entirely sold out, but podcasts of the talks will be available in due course, and there will, I believe, be some Tweeting throughout the day.