But I do think the Economist is wrong to argue that: “The same yes-but-not-now logic applies to the calls for constitutional reform…. You could re-engineer great swathes of Westminster — bring in an elected House of Lords, introduce a Bill of Rights, design open primaries for MPs, scrap the first-past-the-post electoral system — and it would not make a shred of difference if the people elected were left in charge of claiming their own expenses amid a ‘course-you-can-chum’ culture.”

On the contrary, as Mark Thompson brilliantly pointed out, the electoral system is part of the problem. The Rahm Emmanuel logic of “never waste a good crisis” (quoted in the Guardian’s “A New Politics” supplement (pdf) makes me slightly queasy, but so much trust has been lost that more drastic reforms are needed to restore public confidence in the way we are governed. When you add the excellent cases for PR, an elected Second Chamber and a humbled executive the logic becomes compelling.

On the point Mark makes; well I would simply say this; who seriously thinks Team Brown is going to bring in these kind of reforms? The only circumstances under which it would would be if they thought their precarious grasp on power depended on it; and that will only happen consequentially if the Labour MP’s calling for it are strong enough to group together and willing to kick their government over it.

However, even if they did that would in itself probably bring the whole House of Cards crashing down, so…..

I would hope that public anger would not assuage so easily but elections can have a cathartic effect and the electorate might be fatigued and want to move on. They might feel the new government is the change that was needed.

So we need to fight tooth and nail right now. It may be the only chance we get in this political generation. Alix is spot on about that.

Would suit Darrell then

HUGE round of applause on #bbcqt for the audience member who brought up PR, and the young lad who objected was clearly a spotty tory oik. The young lad in the audience, that is. Not William Vague.

I would regard that as a disaster- I can’t imagine myself voting Labour, but I don’t share in fantasies about their extinction which many right-wingers do.

There’s little doubt now that a Cameron government would be socially conservative & authoritarian- even though they will probably have to give way on totem issues like ID cards & such they’re going to follow the same shite on drugs & various other unpopular causes in a way that panders to their base.

You could say the opposition will come from the yellow corner- but then, there are more than enough on the decent left who need some form of political home of some form.

It could well; his lieutenants are not looking loyal, the government is set for another brusing defeat over Royal Mail and what better way to sate the publics blood lust than a public deposition of the PM himself?

If I was in the Labour Party and in say, Millibands position id be thinking exactly along those lines but maybe i’m just evil Bloody execution, call an election on the poll bounce that follows and rally the core vote with a traditional Tory baiting message.

But if they did change leader we would need a General Election. I mean, I *want* a General Election. And really… if you think about it… I don’t think the current news agenda is really going to change the result either way. We’re getting the Tories no matter what, or if things go really badly wrong we’ll have another 5 years of this crap. I dread to think.

I don’t think any general election will ever be fought on a single issue, and I definitely don’t think the next election – even if it happened next week – would be fought on expenses. No party has come out of expenses(-gate/-fence/-privet hedge) clean enough for that to happen.

I agree with Darrell’s point 2, as well – if you’re after constitutional reform, your aim is to convince the people, not to bring it in by the back door thanks to fortuitous electoral circumstances. Anything else would, of course, be utterly disingenuous.

(Erm, any tips gratefully accepted…)