There are few problems today which have not been either caused or made worse by the politicians. The sad fact is that the institutions of our representative democracy - one of the world's oldest - have been compromised. This can be directly attributed to the power brokers in the major parties who are in an unholy alliance with the elites. So much of what they do today just does not pass the "pub test." The authors argue that the only solution is to make the politicians truly accountable - not just every three or four years in blank cheque elections - but on every day, of every month and of every year through the tools of direct democracy.