Et Tu, Purnell? Then die, Gordon.

You have to feel sorry for poor Gordon. I would not like to be him tonight. He was so keen to be PM, and all he got was this lousy mess. No more Flash Gordon, savior of the world's banking system, just Poor Gord, The Sinking Ship.

Gordon, bear chained to a ragged staff, surrounded by blood-crazed media mastiffs.

So on a personal level, tough luck, mate. Nobody's perfect. There's always your memoirs to look forward to.

But let's not waste too much sympathy on him; let us keep some sorrow for the victims of the wars that he supported and sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan; let us remember his choices on the Trident, the British Weapon of Mass Destruction; his choice to resurrect Nuclear Power, the Creature from the Phosphorescent Lagoon; his failure to close the gap between rich and poor; his actions in restricting our civil liberties; his reclassification of cannabis to Class B; his support for the ridiculous First Past the Post electoral system; his plans to privatise the Post Office and the NHS; his hot air about global warming, while putting blocks in the way of renewable energy systems; his pumping money into the banks, but not thr real economy; his continuing servility to the banksters; his failure to fence off the derivatives; the 10% and all the rest of it...

Right, Gord is Gone. He is an ex-Prime Minister. Phew. Now then:

All hail Alan Johnson, the next PM of Great Britain and Northern Ireland!

This could be good. Here's how:

Prime Minister Johnson, mindful of the need to purge the Augean stables, makes his first act the fulfilment of a manifesto promise: he calls a referendum on PR to be held in early September. He also cancels the summer recess, and Parliament sits to draw up plans for radical political reforms.

Come September, the referendum says Yes to PR. So he calls a General Election - get this - to be held under PR.

OK, there's a problem here. PR will require a redrawing of boundaries, and that will take time.

But. It could be done, after this fashion:
Using the present constitutencies, we can modify FPTP to make Parliament reflect the will of the people. It goes like this: elect MPs under FPTP. Look at total proportions of the vote, and then re-allocate seats to make parliament proportional. Say the Tories are over represented, and LibDems are 2 MPs short of a proportional share of seats. Find the 2 LibDems who came second in their constituencies to a Tory by the smallest margin, and replace the Tory with a LibDem. And so on, until Parliament reflects the will of the people.

Yes, I know, nothing is perfect. There are details to be considered, but give us a chance, I only heard about james Purnell's defection 10 minutes ago.The point to be kept in mind is that we need a Parliament elected under PR asap, because under FPTP we are going to get the Tories in, and the Tories have certain defects. Serious Defects. They have just gone to join up with a climate change denier in the EU, and they want to have tax cuts and public service cuts in the midst of a recession, both of which are recipes for a political disaster of such a magnitude that we will look back on Gordon Brown and say, "Poor Gord! He wasn't such a bad PM."

In short we need PR not just because it is right and democratic, but also because it will save us from a full-on Tory assault on the fabric of the universe.