Everything is under control; Labour have a plan; keep the patient happy this side of the election; and don’t frighten the voters about the horrors to come.Now let’s move to the expected election timetable, which the BBC website sets out. Again, as polling day is certain to be 6 May, it’s all rather obvious.
But wait. We have to consider the mind of short-term tactical Brown.
It's not like him to walk down the path of the all-so-obvious. He will want to wrong-foot the Tories with some trumped-up dividing lines on Budget Day, as well as sending us voters a few morsels to chew on.
The Gorgon is not one to miss an opportunity to stick it to the Tories, is he?
2 comments:
Dear Mr Clown
Scary forecast: Mr Brown goes up to Town to meet the Queen and ask her nicely to dissolve parliament, which she graciously agrees to do.
Parliament is dissolved.
Goodbye parliament.
All MPs are ordered back to their respective EU regions and become the interim regional governments pending democratic elections in a few months time.
Control of the armed services and everything else is handed over to the EU.
Messrs Mandleson, Cameron, Clegg and their cronies are elevated to some fabulously salaried sinecures in the EU for handing over 12 of the 13 offshore regions of the EU in the agreed timescale.
The nightmare begins.
DP
Little bit uncertain what you are suggesting here - that Brown might go to the country before May 6th?
If so, I think it highly unlikely. I share an office, and usually lunch, with someone who has been on the Labour NEC for a long time and we've discussed this often.
She reckons (though cheerfully admits that as chair she would probably only know once it's appeared in the newspapers!) that May 6th is absolutely essential.
Apart from the usual thing about not being able to get activists out for local elections within a couple of months of a general, their locals strategy is closely tied in with having the general on the same day.
You see even if they poll quite low in the general and lose, say they get about 26%, they calculate that that share of the vote translated into the local election on the same day will give them an increase in councillors and therefore something to celebrate on an otherwise dark day and a modified power base with which to fight a possible new Tory government.
There would be open revolt amongst local government activists if this received wisdom were changed now.
That said, most of that is based on them losing, and in particular having to fight a second set of elections against the background of a Cameron honeymoon period with knackered activists, and no money. If he really thinks he can win it early they may be steeled for that, but actually my feeling would be that if they scrape a victory in the general early, there might be sufficient anger in the country to do them real harm in the locals.
Anyway - just what we've been discussing together.
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