Jon Bright (London, OK): Hat-tip to the ever useful Direct Democracy mail for a few of these links - starting with this Conor Burns article on Conservative Home. It's an extended look at why Tories have to, on average, get more votes across the country to get the same amount of seats as Labour (Tory constituencies generally have more voters in them, and these voters tend to turn out in higher numbers). The Tory problem is, essentially, that they have a lot of wasted votes in each election - far more people in their large constituencies are turning out than are needed to win them. Burns also blames the sluggishness of the boundary commission - reviewing once every 15 years, it can't keep pace with rapid population fluctuations in inner city areas.

Tristan Stubbs (London, ERS): Gordon Brown knows that in policy announcements, presentation ranks as highly as substance. One early demonstration of his avowed change from Blair is the new PM's unwillingness to use that nettlesome adjective - ‘historic' - to describe government plans. His predecessor's famous ‘hand of history' phrase remains for the former prime minister's critics a deliciously quotable example of Blair's suspected hubris.Brown was therefore wise to leave it to others to underline the significance of the constitutional reforms he announced on July 3 (pdf). According to the Guardian, a Bill of Rights or written constitution (the green paper promised a consultation on both) would ‘transform the historic settlement of the state'. It was, enthused the Power Inquiry, an ‘historic constitutional moment'.

Anthony Barnett (London OK): We sat at the back of the young audience attending the leadership debate hosted by the Fabians (see entry below). After it was over Brown worked the crowd. When he got to us I introduced him to Guy Aitchison OurKingdom's new intern and he said to me, "Where are the questions on the constitution?". Well, Gordon, I'm not a Labour member and did not have the chance to put one. But it was striking that no one asked "What is a new constitutional settlement" or "What about the threat of ID cards to our fundamental liberties?" or "What about Scotland and the national question?", or, indeed, about the state of our democracy. It was a Fabian crowd! So it was left to the moderator Steven Richards to ask Brown, in a follow up to a question about a "progressive consensus", for his view on PR. "I am not closed to electoral reform", Brown replied, before going on to stress the need to retain the constituency link for MPs, ensure the accountability of parliament and enshrine rights and responsibilities that will "safeguard our civil liberties". Electoral reform is not, of course, the same as proportional representation, and Brown's words seem to suggest that he favours an "AV" system.