OK, a big scary word to begin with; but this is a big scary crisis!

Basically palingenesis means rebirth - which is what we need for parliamentary democracy right now in the UK. People are not willing to be bought off with the language of "renewal", "reform" or "National Council[s] of Democratic Renewal", Brown's latest, laughable, attempt to reinvigorate a corrupt and discredited polity.

The crisis presents a wonderful opportunity to replace a worn-out, outdated politics with one fit for the 21st century. What was the preserve of anoraks and crackpots, er, I mean academics and Westminster politicians (PR, written constitutions, recall, fixed parliaments) is now being debated in a serious way...

Roll on more crisis...towards the rebirth of parliamentary democracy in the UK!

Update:

I am wary of deferring to experts on anything to do with the campaign - be it expelling shameless fraudsters from the House of Commons, through to a wide-ranging constitutional revolution that transfers power back to the people - but Vernon Bogdanor, a prof at Oxford Uni, gives some good historical context here; they really do put Profumo to shame...

http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/06/profumo-affair-british-p...