So, unlike elections in the Philippines, Australia and the US this year, it is a case of out with the old and in with something that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

You see, unlike voters, there are people out there willing to take a chance. They just happen to be in Hollywood with their hands on purse-strings holding bags containing hundreds of millions of dollars.

In my wilder moments, I have wondered what the world would be like if the people behind Bond were running the world. Mr Bush would emerge from the White House surrounded by a bevy of beautiful, blonde bodyguards, and slide behind the wheel of an environmentally friendly Ferrari. Shouting out to his aides to give Vice-President Dick Cheney and Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld their marching orders, he zips off to the French Embassy for lunch before flying to New York for a round of golf with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Later, he slips off to a club to hang out with some gay friends who just got married, and is later seen at a Christian coffee house extolling the merits of genetic research. Somewhere along the way, he has made peace with the Muslim world by buying some Cat Stevens CDs.

About this time, my dream bubble bursts and, thrust back into reality, I realise that the older I get, the more prone I become to irrational thinking.

But that does not apply to Bond. While he has not strayed far from the character laid out half a century ago by his creator, author Ian Fleming, he has at least moved with the times. His gadgets have increasingly defied science, while his cars and women have got ever faster.

A post-September-11 007 - whose next episode, Bond 21, will be out around 2006 - needs to take that extra step into the realm of being cool, yet politically correct.

Brosnan's successor does not have to be male, nor an arduous ogler of the opposite sex, although an English-accented individual, to keep to the tone of the original, would be a necessity.

A computer-generated Lara Croft-type figure would be ideal, but would make guest appearances difficult. One of the cast of the original 1970s television series Charlie's Angels may seem appropriate, but would fail the accent test.

Politically, the next Bond should not be too far left or right. An eloquent reader of scripts is a necessity. Nice clothes and good looks will be everything.

Here, I am going to stick my neck out and make a rash prediction. British elections, tipped for early next year, will not go as planned. Mr Blair, at the mercy of the anti-war lobby, will lose and, rather than joining the opposition, he will opt for a movie career. Instantly, Hollywood will snap him up as the next Bond.

His privileged upbringing and Oxford University education give him the right grounding to play the sophisticated Bond. A gregarious student life as a gyrating bass player and lead singer with a rock band called Ugly Rumours prove he can go out on a limb, just as the master spy does. Most importantly, Mr Blair was born in Scotland - the birth country of Sean Connery, arguably the greatest Bond of all.

The world is not enough for the ever-ambitious Mr Blair. With him as Bond, tomorrow will never die.

Peter Kammerer is the Post's foreign editor