Just left the Andrew Marr Show, where I was on the sofa discussing the day’s big story before the full broadcast of Andrew’s pre-recorded interview with Gordon, in which the PM called off the snap election.
As I argue in today’s Sunday Telegraph, it is only a fortnight since Brown was on the very same show, insisting coquettishly that he would not be providing a ‘running commentary’ on his election planning. Now it looks as though it is he himself who is ‘running’ – from the people’s judgment which, his pollsters told him, could not be assumed to be positive.
So often impressive since he entered Number Ten, Gordon looked evasive and irritable today. He said he needed time to set out his ‘vision’: what, then, was the purpose of his conference speech with its parables, promises and ‘moral compass’? He dismissed as ‘froth’ all the speculation of the past few weeks – which is rich, given that most of it was whipped up by his own acolytes. ‘Froth’ is one of those political code-words like ‘tittle-tattle’, used by politicians to fend off discussion of something which is true but unpalatable. The briefing overnight was that the electoral register is not in sufficient shape to call an election. This excuse was used in 1978 when Callaghan postponed the election. It was pathetic then, and it is pathetic now. Are we seriously to believe that the Brown election team only made this discovery on Friday?
Small wonder David Cameron looked so chipper in his own interview with Marr: the Tory leader has had a terrific week. The formidable challenge that lies ahead of him is to keep up the momentum he achieved in Blackpool, as the long march to a 2009 election begins. But, as he admitted while the credits were rolling, he doesn’t now have to give quite such immediate attention to the huge dossier of manifesto documents sitting reproachfully in his briefcase.
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