Whilst Alasdair Campbell was touting his book around the studios yesterday, those of us at a CentreForum event listened to an alternative view of UK politics.

At 'New prime minister, new democracy?' Greg Dyke outlined his belief that the current political system was on the verge of a 'Berlin Wall' moment; a time when our fundamental assumptions about how we are governed are turned on their heads.

The failings of the current system are so fundamental that only those in the Westminster village are unaware of the depth of the crisis.  Gordon Brown's constitutional reforms - though welcome - are too little, too late.

Dyke looks forward to an era of decentralisation and PR and derides the current take-it-or-leave-it choice between the two main parties' manifestos:

I’m not talking about constant local referendums, or on-line votes on issues where people’s uninformed prejudices can easily dominate, I’m talking about involving people in the decision making process by giving them the information they need to make proper judgements. That will involve their time and being involved in proper discussion and some won’t want to be involved on that basis, but the time has come to make the effort. The days of old fashioned representative democracy whereby we elect a councillor or MP for four or five years and let them make every decision on our behalf are, I suspect, over. We, as the public, want to be more involved than that.

Dyke's personal history makes the speech is especially interesting - you are reminded of Dyke's battles with Alasdair Campbell and ambitions to run London throughout the speech - though he doesn't directly refer to either.

Does this ultimately detract from his message? Some will think so - but why not decide for yourself?

The full speech can be read at the CentreForum website.

Also in today's news

• It seems the benefits of marriage will be much debated over the next few days.  The FreeThink blog will look at what people are saying later in the week, but there are a couple of early salvos from Mary Dejevsky in The Independent ('Why marriage is a dangerous game in politics') and Polly Toynbee in The Guardian ('This broken society rhetoric leaves Cameron marooned') .