The signs of an imminent general election now abound. The government has started to churn out announcements as it clears the decks before Parliament rises. The most vicious of these came from John Prescott, who has changed planning rules to permit a new generation of out-of-town shopping centres and complete the destruction of our country towns, a job left half finished by the Tories in the 1980s. The most hypocritical came from Tony Blair. After eight years of government policies promoting lone parenthood through tax credits, housing and childcare, the Prime Minister attempted to ingratiate himself with an evangelical audience in south London by accusing single mothers of ‘piling up problems for the future’.
Meanwhile Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, finally emerged from medium-term obscurity to launch a nationwide poster campaign. The posters showed large pictures of Kennedy, who has lost weight over the last six weeks. His press handlers claimed that the Lib Dems are the only party which does not try to keep the identity of its leader a closely guarded secret.
Tory MPs remain in a state of euphoria. Many of them genuinely believe that the Conservative party will win the election. They are not just saying this. You can tell from the light in their eyes that they think it too. I have noted this condition before, many times, among punters setting off for the first day of the Cheltenham Festival of National Hunt horseracing; indeed, I have often suffered from the same affliction myself. The symptoms include an absolute conviction, in magnificent defiance of logic, of ultimate victory.
The sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney long ago coined a technical term to describe this state of irrational exuberance. He called it GOS — Groundless Optimism Syndrome -— while noting that it does not last very long and almost always culminates in bankruptcy and despair.
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