British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour government is facing a meltdown in the aftermath of the MPs' expenses fiasco. Labour suffered heavy losses in Thursday's local council elections and the results of the European Parliament elections, to be announced tomorrow, are expected to be just as bad.
The row over lavish expense claims by MPs has rocked the political establishment in Britain but has particularly damaged Mr Brown, who has been accused of being slow to respond to public anger.
Many of his colleagues are deserting him and his hold on the Labour Party is slipping away. Before Thursday's elections four ministers announced their intention to resign from the government, namely Communities and Local Government Secretary Hazel Blears, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Children's Minister Beverley Hughes and Cabinet Office minister Tom Watson.
Yesterday, it was announced that Defence Secretary John Hutton and Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell had resigned. Reports of other members leaving the government continued to emerge.
Mr Purnell, one of the fastest-rising stars in the party, is the first minister to tell Mr Brown directly that he should step down. In his resignation letter, Mr Purnell wrote: "I owe it to our party to say what I believe, no matter how hard that will be. I now believe that your continued leadership makes a Conservative victory more, not less, likely. That would be disastrous for our country".
A major Cabinet reshuffle has now been announced but it is doubtful whether this will be enough to satisfy public opinion and keep the Labour Party united under Mr Brown's leadership. The pressure on Mr Brown to call a general election is growing day by day.
Only time will tell whether Mr Brown's government, with its new ministerial line-up, will survive in office until next year when an election is due. Mr Brown could very well be challenged for the leadership to enable the party to face the electorate with a new team. Even The Guardian newspaper, traditionally sympathetic to Mr Brown and Labour, withdrew its support for him. "It is time to cut him loose," it said in an editorial.
Mr Brown's argument is that pulling Britain out of recession is the government's main priority and holding an election now is not in the country's best interest. While it is true that the precarious economic situation demands the full and undivided attention of the Administration, a weak government, considered to be out of touch with the everyday concerns of ordinary people, is not in an ideal situation to tackle this economic crisis.
What will happen is still unclear but what is clear is that the centuries-old way of conducting democracy in Britain is coming to an end and lawmakers are now contemplating all kinds of ideas they would have previously rejected.
Changes under consideration include proportional representation - ending what many consider to be an unfair "first-past-the-post" electoral system, fixed-term parliaments - ending the advantage to the ruling party of choosing the election date, a written Constitution, a fully elected second Chamber, a limit on the power of the whips, thus allowing MPs to vote more according to their conscience, and boosting the power of select committees by electing the chairmen rather than having them chosen by the whips and handing them greater investigatory powers.
A tall order indeed that demands strong leadership.