Pandora alert

However much the truly horrible circumstances left behind by Brown's regime require extreme measures and a government of national unity, TMP remains acutely aware of the dangers to this unique experiment in collaborative politics.

All the main parties in the UK have been coalitions that have traditionally accommodated a wide spectrum of opinion. This has meant the job of leading these parties has always been the management of a "coalition" - and the result has been a relatively moderate compromise, where the absolutely unreconcilable extremists of the main parties have been obliged to depart to the fringe parties, and guaranteed obscurity.

The electoral system of "first past the post" has encouraged the existence of such internal coalitions, and thus far spared the British public the sight of the creation of an Official Pantomime Horse.

But PR makes the creation of a "fringe" party a lot more attractive, so all the main parties are likely to see their factions peeling off into new extreme alignments, and their leaders will no longer be constrained by the needs to manage their own internal coalitions.

TMP will do its best to remain constructive and hope that it all works out - and that the result is the best of all worlds in these extremely dangerous times, and if he pulls it off, Davnick will have achieved a considerable miracle.