So Gordon Brown has seen the request for clarification by Liberal Democrat MPs as a breakdown in talks between David Cameron and Nick Clegg. He has made himself available for talks to keep Labour in power.
He should bear in mind that a majority of MPs was elected on manifestos which promised an end to ID cards and the national identity database, a cut in the number of MPs, to encourage green growth and jobs, to give voters the right to sack corrupt MPs, to end payments into the Child Trust Fund - and that's just from memory of the overlap between the Conservative and Liberal Democrat manifestos.
And, as far as I am concerned, AV is as unpalatable as no change in the voting system at all. The odds and ends of parties (DUP, SNP etc) needed to form a bare majority with Lib Dems and Labour agree on not very much, but proportional representation is, as far as I know, on all their platforms.
On the other hand, there are doubtless more Labour MPs who want to see no replacement for Trident and an end to Eurofighter commitment, than there are on the Conservative benches.
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It looks as if Labour is now prepared to reconsider AV+ (the "Roy Jenkins" scheme) which Tony Blair shelved. That would be worth having, but we also need to have Labour move on civil liberties and reform of Welsh and local government finance.
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