Political rhetoric annoyances

Politicians are always announcing their intention to build stuff. Not houses or anything as boringly tangible as that; it's usually more abstract things like 'trust', or 'communities', or even, when they're feeling ambitious, 'a new society' or something.

Gordon Brown's the latest to be at it. He's promising to build, or rather re-build, people's trust in democracy:

""To those who feel that the political system doesn't listen and doesn't care, to those who somehow feel powerless and have lost faith ... I will strive to earn your trust," he said."

Now call me an old cynic if you must but could one of the reasons that people 'feel powerless' is because they are really rather powerless - with regards to basic democratic stuff like who governs them, for example?

Brown will take over and will presumably in due course appoint a new Cabinet moulded in his own image. The party will be the same but the priorities and personalities will have altered: a change of government by most people's definition, yet the electorate will not have been consulted.

It's not really about the political system not 'listening' to people or 'caring' about them; it doesn't, under these circumstances, allow them to participate. If Brown wants to 're-build' our trust, perhaps some practical ideas about how the system might be reformed would be better than this sub-Clintonoid crap about 'listening'.