Brown’s just told us he’s stepping down as leader of the Labour Party. Gordon Brown was THE sticking point between Lib Dem and Labour negotiations (as part of forming a rainbow coalition of the losers), and so, unbelievably, Barnacle Brown has in fact stepped down

Worst still, formal negotiations with Labour have begun, apparently. The major hurdle for the Lib Dems out of the way, there’s now talk of an instant, no referendum bill to bring in Alternative Voting immediately.

As depressing, disheartening, demoralising and soul destroying as it may be, I don’t think the Lib Dems, still stinging from the 1974 Lib/Lab pact where they failed to get PR, can refuse that. Not without getting a concrete offer of PR from Cameron.

Lib Dem MPs were given the power to make this decision to guarantee that if and when one of the big two parties ever tripped up again, they’d make no mistakes – they’d get PR or bust, no matter what.

If they think they can get away with jilting the Tories and that the electorate will forgive them for putting.. well..  their own party’s self interest ahead of absolutely everything else? They’ll do it. No question. Short of having to tolerate a referendum on bringing back the death penalty, there’s very little Lib Dems will turn their nose up at to get some sort of PR.

What’s tragically disappointing is that even as a member of the Lib Dems (at one point) even I didn’t pick up just how single minded this party is on this issue. Seems I didn’t see that particular memo. Talks between them and the Tories appear to have stalled on a few issues. The MPs are refusing to sign it off in it’s current form – now we know why. They claim that economic stability is their top priority. Quite simply I’m not sure I believe that now.

So sod civil liberties. Sod sorting out the deficit this year. Sod the plans to scrap ID cards and the Digital Economy Bill. As long as the sodding Lib Dems get their sodding PR, everything will be just fine, right?

So thanks, Gordon. You might just get the last laugh after all.

UPDATE: So the Tories, it seems, have offered the Lib Dems a referendum on AV, while Labour have offered a bill to give us AV immediately, without a referendum (assuming they can get it through the House of Commons, which isn’t exactly 100%). It’s their final offer, and if they’re saying ‘final offer’ publicly, that means it is.

They have to do this deal now, surely? Surely? Don’t they? Please?

The Twitterati are all a-grumble this morning. Sterling has rallied a little against the Dollar. The UK hasn’t had its credit rating downgraded. In fact, from the Market’s point of view, things look… well, they look good.

“The Tories” they cry, “were BLUFFING! We haven’t got a deal and the markets haven’t crashed! Ooo the liars! ”

Ah. No. Sorry. Isn’t it just as plausible that the markets are rising on the back of confidence that a deal will be done (and considering the deadline set by Nick Clegg) at some point today, and that this deal will be putting the economy and sorting out the deficit as their top priority either way?

Markets like that sort of thing. Hell, this non-aligned political blogger loves this sort of thing. We haven’t got a Government but a majority Government looks more likely today than it did on Friday, doesn’t it?

Update: The BBC has another theory:

But once trading began, the FTSE 100 index of London’s leading shares leapt more than 4% – suggesting traders saw the EU deal over a fund to stop the Greek debt crisis spreading as much more significant.

It seems Nick Clegg has, at last, been a bit more specific about what he means when he says, in the event of a hung parliament, the party with the “Biggest Mandate” has the first dibs on trying to form a Government.

You’d think such questions would be straightforward, but no: Did he mean seats or votes? ‘Votes’ would suggest the Conservatives, ‘Seats’ would suggest Labour.

So finally we have the answer, and what a Lib Dem-esque answer it is, too: “Biggest mandate” means highest votes AND seats.

What this means is that if Labour comes third in the popular vote, but wins the most seats, that won’t count. This is good news, I think, and could rule out a Liberal Labour coalition unless Labour are somehow able to show even the smallest hint of returning to the ferocious and relentless election winning machine of old.

It doesn’t seem likely. There’s really not that long to go now (you’ll be relieved to hear), and Labour seems to have literally abandoned all hope. Yesterday’s frankly cringeworthy Elvis stunt (their Elvis impersonator sang, “A little less conversation, A little more action please” without any hint of irony) may prove to be surprisingly apt:

Labour, it seems, is going to die sat on a toilet with its pants round its ankles, blowing a blood vessel trying to poo out a stubborn, rock like turd that’s been lodged up their colon for the last few years: Gordon Brown.