A question of dates

Rainer Unsinn

Brown may do well to preempt the next quarter's figures and call one ASAP. If the end of the year arrives, still in recession, he will have no hope of winning an election.

Whatever happens, then, it won't matter, anymore, he's either out on his ear or has another 5 years to drive Britain further backwards towards the 7th century.

denis cooper

Well, the timing of the general election is no longer constrained by the paramount need to get the Lisbon Treaty into force beforehand and prevent it being killed off by a British referendum, but there's still no compelling reason for Brown to go earlier than necessary if the economy is likely to show some signs of recovery next spring. As I recall, under rather similar although less extreme circumstances Major clung to office until more or less the last moment. Even so I doubt that many investors would still fancy Labour's chances enough to give them large sums of money, when that cash could be better employed currying favour with the Tories.

Andy Leeds

Please God he goes to the Palace tomorrow and begs for a dissolution. The longer he stays in office and the wretched Labour Party the worse the mess will be when the Tories get into government.

Andrew Richardson

But Gordon is not going to be stand. The question that is being asked in Labour ranks, I suspect is how they engineer his replacement with enough credibility to get a hung parliament

Michael Booth

Is that a picture of Cnut holding back the tide of electoral defeat?

Frank P

You forgot to ling the tractor statistics James.

oldtimer

Now that the Lisbon treaty is about to be ratified - and Blair/Millichump are about to be parachuted into the Brussels bureaucracy (they fulfill the right/left balance between them) - does it now matter? No doubt their TU/KGB friends could stump up some cash just to keep them breathing and in line. But the real honey pot is in Brussels as the advance guard (the Kinnocks/Mandelson) has already discovered. This is the ultimate unaudited and unaccountable trough for the political classes. This self serving oligarchy can be relied to look after themselves in five star luxury at our expense for years to come.

Moraymint

Michael Booth

Nope, I'd like to think it was Brown - in a very rare moment of honesty - looking at the back of his hand and thinking, "There are probably more hairs on the back of my hand than there are people intending to vote Labour at the General Election ....".

However, the shocking fact is that there would still seem to be 7 million or so folk out there who will vote Labour regardless of the destruction being rained upon us by Brown and the Marxist nutters currently doing their utmost to wreck the country.

teledu

Yes oldtimer, spot on.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the next government introduced a law banning ex-MPs from EU posts for, say 5 years. (Although they probably haven't got the power to do that now - even if they had the inclination).
Now the treaty's in the bag (it was always about the EU first, second and third as I have been posting on here for quite some time), mugaBrown can expect no real support from Mandelson. That might be the best hope we have of getting an election and to stymy Browns crazy, scorched-earth like policies.

Roger Davies

If Labour win the next GE the FTSE will bomb, Sterling will lose out to every major currency and Foreigners will stop buying Gilts. The first act of Brown and his new New Labour Gov. will be to call the IMF. The City have already factored in a Tory majority Gov. The UK would go down the Crapper.

Dennis Churchill

As others posted above it was about the Lisbon Treaty.
It has cost Labour dear, it may even have destroyed its chances of ever getting a majority in the Westminster Parliament again, but it suited certain individuals and they will come out of it rich and powerful.

Eric

Which is coming first - The IMF or the GE?

Alex

I almost feel sorry for Gordo: the ONS' record for accuracy in regards to its preliminary estimates is not good; Q3 2009 will almost certainly be revised up in future releases - by which time he'll be out of office.

mirtha tidville

Moraymint......I too share your concerns but as to Labour`s voters...just look round parts of Yorkshire, Midlands and the North East to name but a few. loads dont read the papers, well not those without pages of pictures,watch debates on tv et al..sure they moan but come polling day they always put a cross for Labour. Why??..simple because they`ve always done it that way. Thankfully, and dangerously for Labour, although still millions of em, they are a dying breed.

Brown will cling on to the last possible minute

Paul

Those who say it was about the Lisbon Treaty are talking rubbish. That is a view of the world thats sees the EU as the biggest issues facing the UK. That is not the view of Brown and most leading Labour figures. They see clinging to power to the last possible minute as the the main - the ONLY - issue worth thinking about. Everything and everyone else is expendable.

strapworld

The Quenn and her family can bow their heads in remembrance, at the Centotaph. Generals and Diplomats, old and present soldiers etc can bow their heads. Civilians can bow their heads in remembrence.

But Brown? No he does not bow to anyone or anything. The arrogant prat!

Boudicca

Nah .... It's Brown saying 'Talk to the hand, 'cos the face ain't listening."

Peter From Maidstone

I thought the Browns, both Gordon and Sarah, looked dreadful at the Remembrance service at the RAH last night. He looked like a zombie, really quite unwell.

Barbara

I've no sympathy for the Labour Party, from what I've learnt, the KGB infltration, the deception over the Lisbon Treaty, the unions betrayal also, its time for them to go. How can they expect public support after the above, Cameron too, has let the country down he's failed to make a stand for this country but given in without a by you leave. Does that give the impression of a man who will lead well? So, who can we look to in the next government? Well there are certain men to me who have shown grit, detirmination and the will to speak up for us the English and the country what more can any country expect. Yes they are there, not popular figures, not overly full of the love of media attention, but they are there so that's where my vote will be going. If they win great, a few seats, great, but I will know their voice will be loud and clear has its always been speaking up for us the English and the country. I don't need to spell them out.

John Moss

Labour are broke. The unions will fund the general election campaign for them, but the idea that a month later they can mount a local election campaign is laughable.

They will hav ebeen badly beaten in the General Election and to then go and lose what is left of your councillors - and the funds that get channelled back to the party from their "allowances" - would be suicidal.

Oh hang on..... this is Brown we're talking about here.

He doesn't care about the country or the Labour party, he only cares about saving his own skin.

Rainer Unsinn

"Talk to de hand cos de face ain't lissnin, innit"

General Zod

Paul, you are not taking into account the hand of Lord Mandelmort.

2trueblue

Always said that Mandlesons jo was to hold the Labour party together until the Lisbon treaty had been ratified. Now the job is done who needs Labour, certainly not the EU. Mandleson has delivered. Hopefully the public will get the message that we do not matter to either Labour of the EU. They have what they want.

TrevorsDen

Strap - IIRC, Brown did not bow his head last year. Is there some Presbyterian catch?

Major had at least a point to his hanging on - the economy had been growing for several years, he needed that to work through to the voters.

Yow Min Lye

I thought the phone had gone quiet.

TrevorsDen

Strap - IIRC, Brown did not bow his head last year. Is there some Presbyterian catch?

Major had at least a point to his hanging on - the economy had been growing for several years, he needed that to work through to the voters.

Michael Booth

or is it a karioke rendition of Edith Piaf's
'Non, je ne regrete rien' with hand actions?

Alexandrovich

Cripes! His index finger looks longer than his third finger. Perhaps it's true what they say...

Amadeus Plonquer

People MUST stop saying that there is nothing the Conservatives can do to prevent the Lisbon Treaty from coming into force. He can call a vote of confidence in the House today if he had the spine. If that were to trigger an early general election the EU would need to put RATification of hold.

How many Labour MPs would defy their whip in order to have a chance at being re-elected? I think many.

Heidi High

Alexandrovich -

Just what I was thinking!

Vulture

This may be a conspiracy theory but... I should not be surprised to learn that Lord Mandelslime has become Bruin's personal fitness trainer and ordered him to take up jogging, in the hope that a Jimmy Carter style collapse will remove him from the scene and enable Postman Pat or a Millipede to be hastily shoved into his smelly old

General Zod

Where do you get that idea from, Plonqueur? A general election would make no difference as we have already ratified (thanks to Labour's pusillanimity).

Simon Denis

No, Michael Booth, it is not a picture of Cnut, although the name is composed of exactly the same letters, rather differently arranged.

Marc Stenberg

The sooner Lisbon come into force and the sooner grassroots petitions like the Right2Bet petition can be presented to the Commission, the sooner EU citizens can take power back from their national elites who have sold them out and start demanding their freedom of choice back.

Michael Booth

excellent Simon, excellent!

Paul

Are the Lisbon conspiracy theorists really suggesting that if it hadn't been for Lisbon ratification Brown would have been off to an election when Labour are 10-15 points behind in the polls? He has been working to get the job of PM for his whole life and we are in the middle of the biggest financial crisis for 80 years - an area in which he considers himself a master (!). He was never, never, never going to risk an election unless he was clearly ahead in the polls. Well if they are right he should be off to the Palace this week - lets see shall we?