Election drum beat
Consider for just for a moment the word "tosh". It's pithy, it's rounded, it's expressive. In short it's a splendid word. I fear though that my affection for it may have got me into a spot of bother. Readers with long memories may recall that a couple of months ago I deployed it to describe talk of an early election. I sense that, by now - with the sound of the election drum beat filling your ears - you may just be coming to understand my problem.
Now I could, of course, have chosen not to remind you of my potentially inaccurate prediction… to hope that you hadn't noticed or didn't care. But no. Let me try to explain why my view of an early election has turned from "tosh" to "gosh, it might actually happen".
What had provoked me to use the T word way back in July was the frankly gullible reporting by some of an allegedly leaked memo outlining secret plans for an early election. It was clear to me that the story was a plant to unsettle Labour's opponents. On the day of my broadcast I was, as it happens, meeting a close ally of Gordon Brown for breakfast. I told him what I was about to say. Quite right, he said. Gordon had no intention of dashing to the polls. He had, after all, taken 10 years to get the job and wouldn't risk it rashly.
In the weeks that followed came the floods and foot and mouth, a Tory fightback followed by an apparent recovery in the polls and then Northern Rock. Hardly a recipe for electoral victory.
Or so it seemed. Curiously, it was the run on the bank which changed everything. The first polls taken after the crisis had ebbed showed Labour's position not to have weakened as most expected but to have strengthened. This was the moment, I'm told, when talk of an early election became really serious.
Thus over the past week by the seaside Labour have not merely nudged and winked that they're thinking about having an election. They have poked us all in the ribs repeatedly. The platform speeches have not merely been peppered with populism. They've been covered in a rich sauce of it. And the party moved from drawing up contingency plans to asking individuals to leave their jobs and to begin work on a campaign starting on Monday.
Now Gordon Brown has not yet made his decision. He will sit down with his closest advisers and a sheaf of polling data on Sunday. The Cabinet kids - the young men who were his aides for so many years - will advise him to go for it. The grey hairs around his top table will urge caution - worrying that the weather - both political and actual - may rapidly cool.
Will he listen to the kids or to the grey hairs? No-one knows. Perhaps he'll remember the advice of another pundit - Match of the Day's Alan Hansen, He famously said that you never win anything with kids. You may also remember that he was proved embarrassingly wrong. That happens to pundits - whether in football or in politics.
Of course, if Brown decides not to call an election, I can always say that I told you so.
I'm 
Comments
And then we get the news that Labour loses a seat in Sunderland!
Perhaps people, when it comes to the crunch, are not as pro-labour as the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú and Gordon Brown believe.
Hi Nick, Let us for a moment put aside what you had said on the 19th July 2007, where you could smell elections looming to confirm Brown.
Are you honestly saying that with all the unpredicted initial problems that Brown had to face, he is now on the way to win an election and that if there were no major problems he would get well over 100 seats majority?
That is not very good news for Cameron is it?
If I were you Nick, I'll try to be a little calmer, maybe go for a jog or two and clear your mind (and ours for that matter), and wait for the Conservative's conference.
You will be very busy in the weeks to come Nick! Have a nice day Nick.
It's a phoney war.
I can imagine there are some dry mouths in Labour HQ today as they look at Tory gains in Labour stronghold councils.
The overall swing was enough to create a hung parliament. Voting intentions in national elections are different but it's hardly confirmation that people are convinced that Labour are going to hold onto power nationally.
Remember the Tories now hold more council seats that Labour and Lib Dems combined. That is always a portent that there will be a change of government.
Standing outside No. 10 with Mrs. T will not have done Brown any good amongst its core vote.
Is it possible that whilst all you politicos are looking left, the Tories are up to something under the radar?
With Labour lurching right on crime, it is possible that they have overstretched and left their flanks exposed?
If Brown was realistic, he would wait for the reaction to the Tory conference. I think once the Tories get their say, the idea of an election will be put off well into the spring.
Nick
Whilst reporting on the election have you heard sight or sound of David Cameron at all?
When the Northern Rock crisis broke the government used taxpayer money to bail out NR shareholders with nothing in return. Around that you then have foot and mouth, which is spreading it seems, Bluetongue and pending economic slowdown. Surely you could not design a better moment for a conservative leader to go on the attack...but silence!
Maybe the Conservatives have a plan but it doesn't look like it at the moment.
Calling an election would in one stroke undo all Brown's carefully-crafted pose of the "big tent", putting country before party etc. There is only one reason to put the British people through all the upheaval of an election now, and that is narrow party interest. People may well punish him for it.
I don't think it's about when is the right time to go to the polls, but when is the least wrong.
Brown will never have it as good as now. Events, dear boy, events have been kind to him, but his luck will run out soon enough and with the economy on the inevitable down-turn things will only get wetter...
That's not to say he's got it in the bank if he goes now, but he does have advantages now he will not have in the future. So the balance of probability has to be for sooner rather than later.
Gordon Brown will not risk calling a snap general election after seeing the latest English council by-election results. That ladykilling speech and melting meeting with wotsername obviously went down a storm with the voters.
And then there's the SNP rampant in Mr Brown's own backyard.
'He's marched them all to the top of the hill, and he'll march them back again.'
How about the "Sue Lawley" question??
Whether you like it or not this will have more impact (especially with women)than Brown's alleged strong performance on floods or cow ailments!
Nick, I have been wondering for a while if Brown has another low-politics trick up his sleeve. I he calls an election now the rules for equality in reporting kick in straight away. Doesn't that mean that the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú won't be able to give its usual airtime to the Conservative conference? Given that the Tory polls go up every time Cameron shows his face, this could be a major blow to them.
Nick,
'to go or not to go' is probably more interesting to politico's than the general jo's who are probably more interested in the economy and where interest rates are going. Saying that a truely independent view of 10yrs of labour government vs 10 yrs of a Tory government would be a greta piece of work. Interested in providing it?
Brown could show some statemanship by stating that the next General election will be on the first Thursday of May 2009 and that in future all elections will be held every four years instead of manipulating the date for perceived party advantage.
Nick, when was the last time you asked Brown or Blair about the integrity of the voting system in the UK during a TV interview?
After all the problems in Scotland's Assembly and local elections in 2007, and the postal voting system nationally, shouldn't some steps be taken to restore faith in the integrity of the ballots, before the next General Election is considered.
Steady on, Nick, less of this 'grey hairs' stuff, just because your's has that look of sprayed coal dust. We are constantly being told that 60 is the new 40 and that a stroll up K2, a bungee jump off Niagara and a triathlon around the Amazon basin are but trifles to today's grey hairs. Is it, perhaps, more likely that it will be the Cabinet kids who get the jitters when it comes to the big decision and not the old uns, who may well say "Come on, Gord, we've got as much chance of losing to this lot as John Bolton has of getting a job with the Samaritans'
Well Nick, you may have an election on your hands. Last night at around 8pm, I received a automated call from The Labour Party asking how I would vote in an election, and would I need a postal vote. Strange.
Given today's story about projected levels of immigration, Brown would be crazy to call an election. If there is one thing making the electorate mad at the moment, it is unsustainable levels of immigration and its consequences.
Regarding Mike Owen's comment about the electoral process it is also worth noting that the current period up until 1 December is the time when Electoral Administrators are extremely busy compiling the new annual voting registers. Calling an election during this period could put significant pressure on electoral staff and also confuse electors; both of which would add to the existing problems with postal voting.
This is all just New Labour lying to us once again.
My flat mate is a constituency organiser for a Labour MP in London. The MP returned from the conference with instructions to distribute tens of thousands of leaflets over the weekend. Not directly to do with an election, but to raise their profile in the constituency.
Although there is no instruction to prepare for an election, the fact that Brown has not dismissed the notion means that everyone has to be on alert, just in case it happens.
This won't go away until an election is actually called. If it doesn't happen this Autumn then the media will simply suggest that it will happen in the Spring. the only way to stop the speculation is for Brown to make a definitive announcement that it either will or won't be taking place.
In the meantime all the parties will be spending vast amounts of money in raising their profile, just in case. Presumably Brown knows that the Labour Party can afford it? Or is his supposed financial acumen restricted to the rest of us, and doesn't apply to the matter of trying to keep himself in Government, and he's happy to waste millions of pounds as his party prepares while he dithers and waits for just the right poll rating?
If Gordon goes for an election we shall know that the crash in the UK economy is coming sooner rather than later. He knows!
It must be the most agonising decision Gordon Brown has ever had to take. If he goes for it and wins the election he is out from under Tony Blair's shadow for ever. It he loses he is finished.
Looking at the past and when the decison to go for an early election I remember Ted Heath as he then was, who called an early election in February 1974. How disasterous was that? Clem Atlee in 1951 also got it wrong. But Harold Wilson got it right in October 1974 and March 1966. It is terribly hard decison if he gets it wrong!
As every Doctor Who watcher knows, the six words that every prime minister will not want to hear.
"Don't you think he looks tired?"
He would be mad to go now if all is rosy in the future, because it will look like a panic.
If the chickens are coming home to roost, now may be a good time because economic failings can be blamed on outside influence or the chancelleor and his predecessor. Doh! that was Gordon, perhaps not then. Can always blame it on the previous Conservative government, 10 years ago but, hey!, still blaming them for stuff now that they have had 10 years to resolve.
Leave it later and the events make make him wish he had called it earlier.
Nice to see that the conference where they concentrated on what they were doing and being nice to each other dissolved on the Harman speech to the mud throwing session. Same old same old.
NICK
In general elections, we Brits tend to be conservative(with a small c).
We change governments if the incumbents are greatly disliked or shown to be useless. Alternatively, if the opposition has someone or something that has major cross-class appeal today, tomorrow and next month.
You know better than most of us if either or both applies now, but I'd suspect a new PM with fresh ideas and impetus could just raise enough popular votes on the day to win handsomely. For Mr Brown, it's simply can he raise that enthusiasm amongst ordinary voters?
If he thinks he can, he will go this autumn. The Sunderland results are utterly irrelevant, the general election turn-out will be about double & if the PM can get the turnout up to nearer 70%,that's another good sign for him, because people will be coming out to vote him in.
No doubt, we'll see!
Oh Nick! The thought of dear old Gordon calling a snap election has got you quite excited hasn't it?! I was at conferece all week and people talked of nothing else so it's got the party faithful quite excited too! I really hope that if we are to have an Autumn election it is called just as Mr Cameron is outlining his "policies" for his "future" Tory government. We need a good laugh!
Looking forwards to Blackpool??? ;-)
well i think we will have an election in novmember because brown now has no choice. if he doesn't go then it will come back to bite him and the public won't like being messed about like they have done so far.
i wonder if last night by election tory gain result my throw a spanner in the works
The bbc really do seem to be far from objective when discussing the merits and very obvious failings of gordon brown.
I can't believe the significance being placed on the council by-election results. You can practically ignore mid-term Westminster by-elections when it comes to indication of likely general election voting, Council by-elections mean absolutely ziltch and will not influence thinking on a snap election.
Nick,
My vote will go to the party that offers me a vote on EU treaty. Its that simple.
It's a big ploy to make the tories talk themselves to death! Hurrah!
I have to say I have wavered on whether an election was likely.
On the assumption you were right back in July with your Tosh view, it suggests that this was a tactic that GB was prepared to use, and did use - why should these current signals be any different to a continuation of that policy?
Having seen the tactic working, I think they decided to continue it, recognising other potential benefits...
I am beginning to settle on the view that this is GB desperately trying to flush out Conservative policies, so that the Labour party can triangulate them over the next 2 years before the election.
The 'Tosh' strategy had other benefits - it allowed GB to have a quite conference, and hopefully allow his honeymoon to continue; it could have come to an abrupt halt if the Unions had caused problems.
I also feel there are too many "indicators", just like the obvious one several months ago - that you picked up on.
The council by-elections are a reality check for Gordon. The polls are obviously way off beam - nobody, Gordon especially, thinks he has an 11 point lead. The lead is in truth much narrower and will inevitably close even further during an election campaign. Gordon knows that.
Furthermore, there is the Scottish dimension. Labour need Scotland for their Commons majority and they are way behind the SNP there.
Gordon would be best advised siiting tight until the spring at the earliest; Alex Salmond may well have lost support by then (all governments at every level eventually do) and Gordon will be better placed to maximise his own support.
Big clunking fist - more like, rabit in the headlights
One aspect that you have missed (but Mr Brown will not have missed) is Labour's own Scotland question.
Labour in Scotland is falling to pieces and Wendy Alexander is not making much of an impact with the voters. The polls are dreadful for Labour in Scotland and the SNP is even more popular than when the last Hollyrood election took place.
Brown will have to wait until the sun no longer shines quite as brightly on Salmond and the SNP, otherwise even a minor gain for the SNP could add to their move towards independence - and if Scotland even become partially independent, then that could spell the end of the Labour movement. For good!
Take the Scottish MPs out of the house (even just for devolved issues) and things look very different. Labour would no longer be able to pass legislation on health, education and any other issue that in future might be further devolved.
He needs to defeat the SNP in a convincing manner, if he is to stop this process.
However, continued devolution is a social, as well as a political process and even if there were to be no SNP, Scotland would continue to drift away from England.
You may just be looking at the last Labour Prime Minister - ever!
Nick,
I am not convinced by the people who say that Gordon Brown would look like he had 'bottled it' if he didn't call an election.
He has wisely allowed his juniors to stoke the fires of election talk to distract us all from the problems Labour has with the process of re-invention going on.
With the nature of 24 hour TV news as it is today it is astonishing that one day News 24 is covered in election speculation and the next day the caravan has moved on to another issue.
Gordon Brown will call an election if he thinks he is going to win by enough to justify the risk. The end of the best political week of a short premiership, at the best poll rating his party has had in a very long time strikes me as going against the prudence he is famed for. It would however seem to fit with his counter-intuitive approach he has taken so far as PM
The Labour Party seems to have spent the last week just talking up and playing down a future election. I think they're doing everything they can to keep the story running, to convince the Conservatives the snap poll's on and thus smoke them out on policy. Meanwhile Cameron seems to be borrowing Brown's trick of battening down the hatches when there's a storm about. I wonder what he's up to behind the scenes - maybe on Monday we'll be in for a shock.
But I can't believe Brown will go for a snap poll. The act of calling it asks too many unanswerable questions, such as:
a) So does this mean Brown expects things to get worse between now and Spring?
b) Whatever happened to putting the Country first?
c) What exactly has Brown ACTUALLY DONE YET - except posture against and destabalise the Conservatives to gazzump their political territory?
Cold, wet weather, dark evenings and an unneccesary election barely half way through the Parliamentary term do not sit well together.
The Tories have had to regroup around the attitudes Hague/Daracula adopted to save dipping below 30% share of the vote - that is enough benefit from the election hysteria the press and a few attention seeking politicians have engendered.
Gordon Brown and his team can just go on with governing the country, thank heavens!
Nick - I think this is a crucial point. With all this post conference euphoria (too many of you journalists being cooped up together) I am surprised that there hasn't been more comment on the Scottish question. Can you remind us of the number of seats Labour has in Scotland and given that Alex Salmond seems to be fairing well what number of seats you think Labour are at risk of losing
"When is he going to go?"
Now that sounds familar - didn't they used to ask the same of a very recent predecessor.
Maybe the media managers liked the way they could keep the journalists busy with that phrase, so have decided to continue it?
I hope it is soon -- the sooner we can ditch these monsters the better.
Nearest the Beeb News Team has come to comedy-
Please don`t change, Nick, I`ll give you DOSH!
TOSH stands for "Tanker Out Steamer Home". (Cognate with POSH; also with GOSH = God Only Saves Heretics)
Nick,
I am not convinced by the arguements that suggest that Gordon Brown will be perceived to have 'bottled it' if he decides not to call an election in the next few days.
Surely he is going to call the election on one simple basis, and that is whether he is going to win or not. The problem with the timing of the decision is that he cannot possibly ever have a better poll rating than straight after his conference, one that has been frightened into loyalty by the prospect of the election.
The problem that is being proposed is that if he doesn't act he will have excited the British people into election fever unnecessarily! This is a very Westminster village view of the situation, most people do not care except those directly affected and within 24 hours of a different news cycle we will all be focussed on something more pressing to the real world.
Gordon Brown should remember his A.J.P. Taylor, who I think I paraphrase, when commenting on the plans of the great powers before the outbreak of the first world war; 'No war is inevitable.'
He should decide if the conflict between party gain and national responsibility has reached a point to justify an unjustified election.
This speculation is interesting, but having had a look at the useful graphic in the Guardian today I've yet to be convinced this is any thing other than a political ploy by Brown.
If he goes on October 25th it is said to be 'half term for English schools' [not all of them, surely?], and if he goes a week later on November 1st, then any canvassing is going to run into the 'Trick or Treat' mob [although at least they can be 'paid off' with some sweets] - so I remain sceptical.
If he really does call an election, then to my mind it smacks of desperation, and a sense of paranoia that everything is going to go 'a bit Pete Tong' early in 2008..
But, like you, I've been wrong before...
Nick
Given the prominance of your blog (and indeed your commentary in general) on the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú, I do find it surprising and disquieting that you devote so much time to speculating on election timings and matters of presentation.
I suggest you should report and unpack the Government's policies more, and analyse their electoral tactics less.
Some of us do actually want to be informed about the issues, not the spin, and we hope the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú will help us with that.
Or why not change "tosh" to "dosh"? eg. "If we throw enough dosh at it, an election might actually happen".
I've started to look at all this speculation as a "problem of induction". Our P.M has said he doesn't need an election. Our democratic government has every right to progress to it's full-term in office, followed by a normal delivery of the next one. No need for any artificial inductions..
P.S I hope you get this one.
The Labour Party Conference had no Pizzaz,it seemed to be concentrated in a very small area,no big speeches,just a bunch of 7 minute men and women,each accompanied by Airport heroes,Darfur women etc,one for each speech and who could barely raise a handclap unless they were spewing out invective as we heard from "motormouth" Hazel Blears, Harriet Harmon and others.This was a one man band and that one man will be very reluctant to push out the election boat,especially since Labour are desperately short of money and the recent local election results remind him that voters have somewhat longer memories than the "Big Brain ???" in the Big Tent gives them credit for.
The Essential Guide to Love, Life and Snappiness
Snap Election - an Election just decided by Brown et al. (which is sort of short notice)
Snappy Birthday – family and friends drop by unannounced, with card and presents, 6 months before your birthday, only to leave 2 minutes later
Snap Out of It – a crazy day with a moment of normalness interjected into it
Re Usable Snappies – lots of little baby Gordon Brown politicians becoming Prime Ministers a lot
Snap Happy – deciding events on the spur of the moment (in a happy way)
Snap – two identical card games that are played at short notice?
Ofsnap - is the independent regulator and inspection of regular and snappy decisions in the workplace
Brain Snapping - a group of people creating divergent, but snapped decisions, in order to get things done in half the time at half the brain power (on the spur of the moment)
Peach Snaps – my favorite drink every six months
Hedging our bets?
I Know what this is about, you are hoping that Gordon will ask YOU for advice!!
Seriously, this is all getting rather distracting, and I am not totally sure if I remember all the other bits that went on at the conference. But then, to be honest, Burma has been the bigger and more important distraction.
Listening to the odd bits of Vox Pops, there is another interesting problem here - something that I realise that the media is unwittingly pushing, and this revolves around the "Has Gordon got a Mandate," issue.
We seem to have forgotten that in our system we do not elect Prime Ministers, they are effectively appointed. We elect Governments, or the party, as it were. So there is an argument that we are talking about the wrong thing completely.
I would also like to see a sideways opinion poll.
From out of the people who normally express little or no interest in politics (that is a LOT of people, btw):
1. Have you heard reports of a possible election.
2. If you have, do you think there will be an election or not.
3. Are you more or less likely to vote following the current round of political reporting?
Journalist Matthew Parris, writing in todays Times, nails 'Brownism' ... statist, authoritarian and profoundly Scottish Labour.
That, in a nutshell, explains why many English people feel so disconnected from the political process.
The English will continue to be strangers in their own country until they start electing independent English men and women into Government.
Let them call an election & let the electorate wipe that smug arrogant grin off their faces. If Labour win another term then I seriously am leaving the country!
Scots opinion is that they were glad to vote for the scunner Salmond for their local parliament. Ask them and they tell you . . .
In a UK parliamentary election where the Labour Party has brought increasing prosperity year on year for 10 years, and also the Scottish Parliament, largely courtesy of the late John Smith, Gordons early mentor, and we can expect a different story, as Gordon Brown no doubt expects.
Tories with scottish fantasies would like to try the shortbread, but the oatcakes may be more suitable for their journey there, with almost nothing to sustain them on a very barren road.
Wil Scotland be a Tory free zone again?
Nick,
I have just watched coverage of the start of the Conservative gathering, and couldn't help but wonder why the presenter was your blog deputy.
I understand the increasing froth being created about an early election, however, I would be happier to accept your analysis if you are seen to be as involved in the Conservative gathering as you have been at the Labour conference. In this respect you have got off to a poor start.
Finally, I am sure there are many contributors who would welcome a more critical approach when discussing the great Gordo. For instance, what is your view of the man who stole our old age, or the man who is increasing fuel taxes yet again, just as oil prices reach new highs?
I hope to hear you broadcasting from Blackpool soon. All the best.
There is absolutely no reason or call for GB to go to GB to get elected when he's only just arrived! Tosh is it - and if you listened to what GB said - it was that he is utterly focussed on the job he's doing and is not about to make way. Read his lips. does that say 'Run to the country' to you? if it does then it is not a Labour hymn-sheet and you are indulging in another torified media conspiracy - anything so you don't have to report on what the government does, has done and will do to keep this country ticking over. And it can do it with or without a jilted Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú or a jaded, tory-dominated, dumbed down press. You really don't get it, do you - or maybe you do.
Oh Dear,
Plagiarism in speeches?
Pots and kettles calling each other black?
We hear William Hague today bewailing that GB is claiming to be heir to Maggie but, foolishly, he's pinched a line from former Democratic Senator Lloyd Bentsen in the 1988 vice presidential election debates:
"Senator - you're no Jack Kennedy"
Nice try William, back of the class for copying!
Good to talk to you on your way to the Conservative Party Election even if I couldn't decide if I knew your feet or not.
All power to Age Concern in this coming election and lets hope the Tories have a better plan for elderly footcare.
Please may all political commentators (including Nick) take some time studying electoral and mathematical reality? Short of a political earthquake, the Tories were never going to win the next election - they have too high an electoral mountain to climb. They need to gain about 140 seats to become the government (probably unachievable even when their polling was higher). Check the Labour majority in that 140th seat and see how far short the Tories are. Cameron's real and major achievement in the last two years has been to convince his supporters and some of the media that such a climb was possible. If the Tories have the staying power that Labour showed under Neil Kinnock (83-92) then they will eventually win power but there is a long way to go. Therefore, the discussion at the moment should not be about elections won or lost but about how far up that mountain David Cameron can take his troops in November or May or whenever.
What truly saddens me in all of this is the reaction of the Conservatives. With a blitz of policy announcements to meet the challenge of an early election, you wouldn't imagine they've had MONTHS to determine what policies to offer the electorate.
What saddens me - to spell it out - is that this state of affairs is the result of David Cameron's belief in two key rules of UK political life:
Rule 1 - don't announce any actual policies until the very latest date that you have to do so, since policy accouncements can only lose you votes
Rule 2 - concentrating on 'the work of opposition' and criticising government effectively makes opposition parties seem electable and their leaders seem statesmanlike.
Neither, I'd contend, is true any longer, since (post-Blair) you can't spin for votes. Were I thinking of voting Tory (I'm not by the way) I'd regard the fact that it takes press speculation of an impending election to stir the Conservatives into announcing policy as a sign of rank incompetence.
Does Cameron keep his job when he loses a General Election? Could they choose an even more lightweight replacement in George Osbourne???
Just to update my post from 28th, my flat mate came in on Saturday night saying "Oh my God, we're having a General Election! I won't be at home much for the next six weeks."
Having been out all day, I assummed I'd missed the news, but no, it hadn't actually been announced. Rather, the office of his MP is carrying on as though there is going to be an election in six weeks, and they assume the announcement will follow. Or rather, they need to campaign as if an election will be announced, for fear of being caught out if they don't.
This is all based on Brown not even having told his MPs that there will or won't be an election, so the only conclusion to be drawn is that he's waiting for the poll results at the end of the Tory conference.
Seem to me that Brown could prove just what a safe, steady, considered leader he actually is (rather than just trying to portray himself as this) by making a difinitive statement now. Chances of that happening? Nil.
Yeah... now that I think about it, why would Gordon Brown call for early elections? Early elections might provoke restless, bitter and vengeful memories of George Bush's "poodle"... and that would not bode well for Mr. Brown.
I think that the problem with the polls is this.
If asked 'Who would you vote for at the next election' people will make snap decisions. However once they get inside that polling booth a significant number start to actually think.
And once they think they realise that if Labour is the Heart then Conservative is the Head.
Hello
No 41 is spot on.
"I suggest you should report and unpack the Government's policies more, and analyse their electoral tactics less.
Some of us do actually want to be informed about the issues, not the spin, and we hope the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú will help us with that"
Point it out to politicians when they do not answer a question.
Give us the facts or an explanation of the same.
Or, do you regard us as people to be manipulated, same as the politicians treat the electorate?