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All the action in Westminster seems to be in Portcullis House's Atrium, which is increasingly the new centre of parliamentary gossip and intrigue. And the coalition gossip centres on the possibility that almost the first act of an incoming government would be a bill to create fixed-term four-year parliaments - starting with this one.

Either this will be a government bill, or it would arise, with wide all-party support, as backbench business, promoted through the new business committee which will start up at some point, once the Commons gets going.

The thought is that this would lock coalition partners into a deal, because, barring extraordinary circumstances, they couldn't just collapse a government and go to the electorate at some tactically convenient moment.

It would take a key power - determining the timing of general elections - out of the hands of the prime minister.

But since the Liberal Democrats would be certain to demand a minimum lifetime - three years at least - for any arrangement they signed up to, it would not be quite such a vast concession.

But aside from that, this will be a huge constitutional change, with all kinds of ramifications for the way politics is done at Westminster.

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