The New Soundbite

Brown's apparent late transformation to changing the voting system is nothing of the sort. He has no intention of changing it, as he knows there won't be enough time to get it through parliament.

It's just another ruse to try to paint himself as the man of change and the Tories as the defenders of the 'gentleman's club' status quo. This became apparent today in PMQs when another soundbite emerged:

"We support the alternative vote , the Tories support the Hereditary vote."

A soundbite so 'good', Brown repeated it quite a few times. Brown thinks nothing of messing about with the constitution if it means another round of Tory-bashing.

Cameron looked rather relaxed about this confrontation and, I suspect, with good reason. This is likely to turn out to be another Brown ACME plan that will backfire. There's plenty of evidence Brown blocked such moves in the past, most Labour MPs are opposed and proposing to change the system so near to an election that you're likely to lose is going to be seen by the voters for what it is - cynical.

Brown's really in for a shock when (if) he has to meet real people in an election campaign.