The PBR is being spun like a pre-election budget but today on the Politics Show today Brown came very close to closing the door on the prospect of a 2009 election. Here’s the key quote:
Brown has left himself a tiny bit of wiggle room but it is hard to see how Brown can now go to the country without raising questions about his own integrity. The vehemence with which Brown rejected the notion shows that he is scarred by the experience of the election that never was.“”I am not thinking about that at all. It is almost completely wrong even to consider this. Our undivided attention is on getting these problems sorted out. I am not planning it at all. I do not think people would think much of me,” he said.”
Considering that the greatest danger to the Tories was an early election before the reality of the current situation had hit home, this is a significant and positive development for the Tories.
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