I strongly support the principle underlying that question, if I may say so. When I became commissioner, I decided that I was going to do a lot of outreach and public engagement as part of my role, because I have found that the public start from a very low level of trust in politics and politicians, and the more one explains the system that exists and the methods that we use to ensure that most politicians are indeed wholly actuated by public interest, the more the public listen and the more their trust rises. I would say engagement with the public, outreach.... By the way, if you will permit me to say this, engagement does not mean allowing the public to come to watch us. Engagement means engaging with the public, listening to the public and allowing them to feel that their contribution is valued and incorporated into the way that we run our system.
I think that outreach and engagement are absolutely key. I completely agree that, in the end, this is about trust. The only thing we're doing here is about shoring up trust between the public and the politicians.
