The ghost of Christmas Future has arrived at Kirkcaldy – and persuaded Gordon Brown not to hold an election next year. So says Ben Brogan, and it rings true.
I’ve previously set out the case for a January election, and Trevor Kavanagh that for a February one. But the PM hasn’t taken our advice, and tomorrow he’ll rule out a winter election. His loss. Every week he waits, his fingerprints will be ever more visible in the economic mess and the Tory majority will be bigger.
Ben says that Brown’s unofficially ruling out April, May and June too. Given that we’ll have a Euro election in June (in which Labour’s certain to get tonked, badly) this effectively rules out 2009 – you can’t justify two elections so close to each other, and – even if you could – the Euro result may put Brown off.
With Mandelson around, you can never rule out a surprise.
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