Duck houses, £2,000 televisions, moat cleaning – the additional cost allowance (ACA) has cost the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds and several MPs their jobs, but it just may prove to be the trigger for widespread governmental reform that progressives have long argued for.

Let’s not focus on the minutiae of who claimed what, and think instead of the wider consequences of this crisis. We must recognise that this ugly episode is but a symptom of a more fundamental failure of governance in the UK, and at the same time represents a glorious opportunity to reform an electoral system rotting from its very core.

So while it is a scandal that Sir Peter Viggers claimed over £1,600 for a duck shelter or that Shahid Malik MP rents a house at a fraction of market cost, many within our party and outwith will be quietly pleased that a sub-set of Parliamentarians have presented reformers with a near-perfect storm: public disaffection with a government coupled with visceral anger at the wider political economy.

To put it bluntly, the ‘Malik defence’ (also known as, and I paraphrase, “I didn’t break any [absurdly lax] rules so technically I did nothing wrong”) and the ‘Kirkbride defence’ (aka “it never crossed my mind that I was in the wrong until the press exposed my faux pas”) simply won’t wash. The public is hungry for more, much more.

This is the message that Nick Clegg has so eloquently sets out in his Guardian article laced with both fury at Westminster’s myriad failings and optimism at the transformed political landscape before us. The early debate over a response to the exposure of MPs’ conduct largely revolved around how to stop future abuses of the expenses system, perhaps a whisper or two about a snap election to purge the corrupt and refresh the Commons.

Indeed, David Cameron set out his vision for change this week, in what is rapidly becoming a stirring forum on the future direction of British politics, as part of The Guardian’s New Politics debate. But take a closer look at what Cameron wrote, and note what he missed out – his attempt to cast himself as a great reformer, as the saviour of government at a time of undeniable crisis, falls short of what is required.

Cameron’s proposed tampering with the edges of a systemically flawed democracy has strong echoes with how the government is dealing with the current economic crisis; an attempt to restore ‘business as usual’ with a few safeguards and tighter regulations here and there to give the impression that times have changed, without altering a thing.

As Nick Clegg states in his demands for a new beginning, “warm words, rhetoric and consideration are not enough; indeed, they are a guarantee that little will happen.” No, what we need is to tackle that which underlies the rotting stench in Westminster and start afresh.

For years many have argued the need to reform the electoral system, to demand more decentralised power, to increase transparency and to reinvigorate the political process starting with a formal written constitution; and yet for years these arguments remained peripheral. But for a fleeting moment in 1997, when the Blair administration appeared to flirt with electoral reform, precious little progress has been made.

Suddenly the political space has opened up to implement the single transferable vote, an elected upper chamber, making Parliament more representative along gender, ethnic and class lines – all options are on the table it seems, with Nick having launched a heavyweight campaign to ensure that real reform takes place, as soon as possible, and that it endures.

Hence, using imagery and language reminiscent of revolutionary movements past, www.takebackpower.org urges us to press for genuine reform inside of 100 days. Lib Dem Voice bloggers have already covered the details of this ambitious plan, (see here and here), and there is bound to be more reaction to follow in the coming days.

The key will be that if cross-party talks on political reform do take place, Nick must be strong enough to demand that these plans be taken seriously – more than that, that they be adopted as fully as possible according to the proposed timetable, so as to avoid lasting damage to political engagement in this country.

So carpe diem, as they say – let us take advantage of the undoubted popular anger towards politicians and support the Take Back Power campaign in as many ways as possible. But let’s not stop there – let’s use Clegg’s 100 days plan as a primer for ensuring that the next Parliament is charged with formulating a codified constitution that expressly tells us what to expect from our leaders and how they can be held to account, that formally sets out our rights and responsibilities towards the state and vice versa.

For so long the preserve of nerdy political academics and fringe rhetoric, political reform is mainstream once again – and as we have but this one opportunity to restore faith in Parliamentary democracy, let’s use this constitutional crisis to rebuild the crumbling corridors of power.

* Prateek Buch is a Liberal Democrat member in Epping Forest, and blogs at teekblog.blogspot.com.