A question of dates

The news that Labour’s financial problems are restricting its campaigning activities with its call centres running at a quarter of their usual pre-election level does suggest that Brown might decide to go to the country earlier than the expected election date of May 6th, as Isabel Oakeshott notes. For Labour there is a real danger that the Tories could so out-spend and out–campaign Labour between now and the official start of the election campaign, with its attendant spending limits, that the Tory lead in the battle ground seats could be insurmountable even before the actual campaign has begun. Going against this is that Brown will want as long as possible to try and show that the economy is actually recovering; the last quarter’s GDP figures were a major blow to this argument.