Could Brown go for a March 25th election?

oldtimer

The sooner the better in the national interest. But the national interest seems not to count in Brown`s calculations.

Sally Chatterjee

I can certainly see him trying to use the budget in March as a platform, a fiscal manifesto. But running on finance and economics will kill him, he's being exposed as the worst Chancellor in British history.

Beer Moth

I think the May date would be the wiser, as by that time the first English strawberries will be streaming in and we all know what a fillip that is to the nation's feeling of well-being.

May it is then.

David Phipps

All this talk of March is a 'smokescreen' by the Tories. By waiting for May it means they have longer to go before they actually have to put detail on the 'suggested' policies.

Brown would get crucified if he held two elections, with the resultant extra cost, by the public!

Holly ......

Brown being Brown, he will pick the wrong date, at the wrong time, for the wrong reasons, in the wrong way.
He will believe his judgment to be sound as always, and believe he will win.
How many times can one person be wrong?
I've put a fiver bet on that an election will be called in the next fortnight.(with Mr Holly).

Moraymint

There's a huge gulf between them and us now, isn't there?

They live in their political dream worlds scheming about how to hang on to their expenses or best manipulate the media or distance themselves from another bout of gross incompetence or get one up on the other lot. Trivial political games in other words.

Personally, I work about 75 hours per week trying to keep the wheels on my business, paying last year's tax liability in instalments out of my personal savings whilst being told by my bank that further working capital lending is out of the question ... not least because of all the political uncertainty that surrounds and subsumes us all at the moment.

As an ex-serviceman, I feel more anger and hatred towards our political class than I ever did towards the IRA or the Argentinians or the Iraqis during my time in service.

How sad is that?

Arthur

The British people will have to prise his fingers from this job one at a time, and they haul him out by his ankles. The thought of Brown giving up even 5 minutes of power, unnecessarily, is absurd.

TrevorsDen

The notion that 1Q or 2Qs of 'growth' will signify anything significant in light of what has gone before is daft. But the longer Brown waits the more chance there is of a bad statistical bombshell.

Labour could go early since they do not have to spend money on the later LA elections, but if they leave it to June and ignore the LA elections which are then bad - then that is a bad bad start to the GE campaign.

It makes sense to go in April. Above all though Brown cannot wait until he has to spell out the cuts and tax rises that are needed. The PBR will be bad enough - but they may be able to extract on last fairy tale before the election.

Kevin Davis

Why go early if you even think you are going to lose.

The man has no bottle - he would have gone in Autumn 2007 if he had an ounce of eletoral instinct. He will want to hang on until he has to go and although that is a date in June he cannot come up with a good enough reason not to hold it the day of the local electons.

Dennis Churchill

Hints by the Conservatives that they will not be bound by agreements, particularly with regard to the EU, would further undermine Labour. It would also put pressure on them from the paymasters of their leadership.
The added bonus being Cameron could redeem some of the damage caused by his reneging on the Lisbon Referendum

Nicholas

I wish he would just go.

m wood

A March election would enable him to avoid having a difficult budget before the election. Then he can announce all sorts of tax increases afterwards!

Tory Radio

James, I suggested a March 25th election yesterday based on similar conversations and the fact that in the past few days 215 fixed term jobs with Labour have been advertised:- http://www.toryradio.com/2009/12/02/15-labour-job-ads-march-25th-election/

They cant afford to pay all them until May given the finances of the party can they?

terence patrick hewett

I am sharpening the wooden stake.

Nick

"Their argument is that this quarter’s GDP figures will be quite good...."

I'm sorry, but this is just completely nonsense. After a catastrophic decline in economic output over the course of SIX QUARTERS then, of course, there will inevitably be a strong-ish recovery (albeit far less than the decline experienced over the previous recessionary quarters) EVENTUALLY. This is, hoever, no reason for the media to paint a picture of a Brown-led economic recovery. Most other G20 nations have been in recovery for the previous two quarters.

2trueblue

He could go in March, but think he wil hang on for the later date. He will want to wait until the economic news is more positive, and the sun might really shine for him???? What ever, when ever it really will be curtains for Brown.

Naomi Muse

"oldtimer December 3rd, 2009 7:14pm

The sooner the better in the national interest. But the national interest seems not to count in Brown`s calculations."

Totally agree. The sooner the better for everything and everyone.

BUT

Broon will hang on by his chewed fingernails unless the barely-hidden Alistair Campbell can persuade him otherwise because he is stubborn and his self-belief is absolute.

Lord of everything else, Mandy, may persuade him to go for March because he is 'supporting' Broon.

Diane Abbot put it nicely on 'This Week' last night when she said that Mandelson supports Broon like a rope supports a hanging man...

He might go for March, in my opinion, because the awful figures for the first half of next year will not help the current government get re-elected at all.

Looking forward to the brown curtains.

Peter From Maidstone

"wisdom in Westminster", isn't this half the problem. Who cares what is thought in Westminister, as if it were some other place than Britain. The fact that we are in the mess we are in shows that there is no "wisdom in Westminster".

Wily Trout

If Brown had any courage he would have jumped to it when Fisons hit the fan over Cameron's Lisbon referendum. Labour's best hope of survival is to split the Tory vote and have a mass departure to UKIP over the EU and immigration.

Holly ......

Labour will never 'split'the Tory vote.
The Tory voter will come out in greater numbers to vote Tory.
Many have stayed at home on polling day because their lives have not been affected to any great measure, now they see the shit heading their way, if it hasn't already hit them and they will be out in force.
Tory voters are a completely different species to Labour.
Many Labour voters trusted Blair,they trusted him when he sold them 'New Labour'.They believed Old Labour was dead.
That was the ONLY way Labour could get elected.So Blair got their votes back. Do they still believe in Labour,New or Old?.
Do they trust or believe Brown?
How do you put your trust in a liar?
Add to that the unfetted immigration,more lies, the EU,more lies and a sell out, the economy, more lies,education,more lies,crime,more lies,troops, more lies,expenses,more lies,bankers pay/bonuses, more lies, the NHS,more lies, no one believes Brown or Labour can correct what they have caused and they are going to be roundly trashed when the British vote.
And deservedly so.
We also know it will be a good few years before things improvement, but we know things will and that is the reason the Tory voter will come out in great numbers.
Another bad week for trolls.
Eton 1 Labour 0.

Danko

Personally I wish he would go and go now. I am absoutely fed up to the back teeth of that excuse for a man. However, knowing Brown as we all do, I regret that it will most likely be May or even June. The man has no shame and no sense of right and wrong.

Ed P

My vote will go to the party offering fixed term Parliaments, as this "will he, won't he" nonsense is crazy.

Tony Moore

It could go either way, although I think Brown believes that he, and only he, knows what is best for the country in every respect.This delusion might encourage him to wait until the last possible date , in the interests of the nation, of course.

Andy

I watched Mandy mouthing that the Corus losses were disastrous with Christmas coming up (which they are - there's no good time to lose your job, but Christmas must be the worst, as happened to my father one Christmas Eve in the 60s). I couldn't help feeling, however, that behind his words was the thought that it was not so much before Christmas as before the coming election that it was a bad time for it to happen.