MPs are still under huge pressure. The Tory MP Julie Kirkbride looks likely to follow her husband and fellow Tory MP Andrew MacKay into political oblivion as a result of her very dodgy expenses claims. Yet another Conservative, John Butterfill, is trying to defend getting the taxpayer to pay for rebuilding his servants' quarters. How very 19th century.

We must pursue these odious characters and make sure they never play any part in public life again. But the Guardian is right to seize the moment to debate a new politics. It's a heady moment: the chance to change Britain's constitution and the way we're run.

Here's my own manifesto:

We must introduce fair voting. None of the candidates I've voted for in parliamentary elections since I came of age in 1981 have won. My votes have been utterly disregarded. How can we criticise Zimbabwe's voterigging when our democracy is so discredited?

We must remove the prime minister's right to call a general election, as I argued after Gordon Brown's election that wasn't in autumn 2007. I don't believe totally fixed term parliaments are the answer as there must be some safety valve to allow an empowered House of Commons to force out failing governments.

We must end the farce of an unelected House of Lords. This is unfinished business that reflected badly on Labour's muddled programme of constitutional reform.

We must honour the idea that power should sit as close to the people as possible: the parish and community councils, followed by districts and then counties and so on. I'm deeply cynical about people like David Cameron demanding power to the people when all the experience of the last 30 years is that his party and Labour constantly centralises control in Westminster and Whitehall. We need a rebirth of civic pride and power.

Westminster parties and voters alike must accept that politicians – especially those in London – don't have all the answers. We have to accept the 'something must be done' craze is deeply damaging. A greater honesty is essential from all of us.

We may need to pay our MPs more – but let them win our trust back first. MPs' salaries shoudn't cover the cost of providing parliamentary services. We must accept that MPs who represent constituencies away from London and the home counties will rightly incur greater costs.

MPs are not social workers and we must make sure they do not become case workers at the expense of holding the executive to account. I'd rather they spend their time on stopping the Iraq war, the poll tax, ID cards and Heathrow's third runway, though I recognise they do help vulnerable constituents.

Having said all that, we must make sure MPs have the resources to handle constituent enquiries, but within a House of Commons structure – there's no excuse for MPs to indulge in nepotism by employing their own families at taxpayers' expense.

Labour deserves great credit for devolution and freedom of information. (Take a bow Labour's Kerry McCarthy, MP for Bristol East, who understandably and humanly expressed her frustration that voters didn't give Labour credit for FoI.) But we need to create a written constitution for our country. The days of slippery informality and convention must be consigned to history.

We must consign the House of Commons' Victorian working hours to the history books. No sensible institution should rely on late night working for part of the year and then spend months on holiday. The idea that MPs should employ their spouses because their working hours are a recipe for divorce is just unbelievable.

All we need now is to make change inevitable.

Heads rolled today for the first time in the MPs expenses scandal.

Former Labour minister Elliot Morley was suspended from the parliamentary Labour party after claiming £16,000 for a mortgage he'd already repaid. And Tory MP resigned as an aide to David Cameron after an equally suspiciously fraudulent claim.

All too many of the MPs caught with their fingers in the till have claimed what they did were within the rules. And many have added that 'the parliamentary staff said it was okay'.

This is all nonsense. I've just taken a look at what the rules actually say. I quote from the Green Book:

“Claims should be above reproach and must reflect actual usage of the resources being claimed.

“Claims must only be made for expenditure that it was necessary for a Member to incur to ensure that he or she could properly perform his or her parliamentary duties.

“It is not permissible for a Member to claim under any parliamentary allowance for anything that the Member is claiming from any other source.

“Members must ensure that claims do not give rise to, or give the appearance of giving rise to, an improper personal financial benefit to themselves or anyone else.

“Individual Members take personal responsibility for all expenses incurred, for making claims and for keeping records, even if the administration of claims is delegated by them to others.

“The requirement of ensuring value for money is central in claiming for accommodation, goods or services – Members should avoid purchases which could be seen as extravagant or luxurious.”

I’d say that has them bang to rights. No excuses for cleaning out moats, claiming for mortgages that have been paid off or blaming the Fees Office staff. Time to call in the boys in blue.