A vintage split

Nick Robinson has a great post up on the generation gap opening up among the cabinet about whether or not to go to the polls now. As Robinson points out, the young bucks want to go this year, increase the Labour majority and dish the Tories for good. Indeed, if the Labour majority did rise to three figures—as the current polls predict it would, the Tory party would turn in on itself with such force that it would take a generation to recover. 

If you’re a Miliband, Balls, Alexander or Purnell the prospect of spending the prime of your political life without any serious external opponents must seem worth the risk that a wet November night could depress turnout too far for comfort. While those for whom this campaign, whenever it comes, will likely be their last—Straw, Darling et al—see little reason to risk anything by rushing off to the polls now.  So, whether there’s an election in November, all comes down to whether or not the Prime Minister is young at heart.