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As I'm writing this nearly a full week before you're reading it, God only knows what will have happened in the meantime. The local and European elections may have completely redrawn the political map of Britain; another slew of bent MPs may have been harried by their furious constituents into standing down at the next general election or been thrown to the wolves by an increasingly desperate David Cameron.

In a letter to The Observer artists and activists from across the progressive movement have called for a binding referendum on Proportional Representation to be held on the same day as the next election. The letter is as follows:

This has been the saddest fortnight since I entered Parliament nearly a decade ago. Voters have rightly been appalled by the steady stream of revelations about MPs' expenses.

In the early days of Brown's premiership much emphasis was placed on making our constitution fit for the twenty-first century. What have we got to show for the "Governance of Britain" programme, launched in July 2007, which aims at "shifting power... increasing the accountability of Government; reinvigorating our democracy; and building a new relationship between the citizen and the state"?

The media's fascination with the return of Peter Mandelson into the higher echelons of government continues unabated. The sheer theatre of his return understandably caught many off guard.