One reason for urgent change was the unprecedented public anger about the financial allowances that have been claimed by some Members of Parliament. Fairly or unfairly, trust in politicians and political parties in the UK has slumped. Data for May 2009 indicates that when participants were asked to rate their trust in the political parties on a scale of 0 to 10, 85.8% gave a rating between 0 and 5; 91.6% gave a rating between 0 and 5 for their trust in politicians. We said that there was a real danger that, in this furore about allowances, people would lose sight of the importance of democracy. The report urged everyone to “take a step back and consider the fundamental value and importance of Parliament.” Steps needed to be taken to “transform the House of Commons and reassert its legitimacy, credibility and effectiveness as a representative body.” There are enduring barriers to parliamentary diversity, including a reluctance on the part of parties to nominate women, ethnic minorities and disabled people as candidates for seats which the party either holds, or has a reasonable chance of winning. There is a significant opportunity to make change happen, we said, as substantial numbers of current Members of the House are announcing their intentions to retire before the next general election - to be held before June 2010. The political parties should ensure that the current round of selections for vacant seats results in a diverse list of candidates. We therefore made a number of specific recommendations about cases where the sitting MP will not contest the general election, including urging all the political parties to commit themselves to: