Why Brown bottled it

The News of the World front page tomorrow blasts, “Poll kills election.” The details of the poll, which the News of the World kindly advanced to us, are grim for Labour and explain why Gordon Brown felt he couldn’t take the risk of going early. 

77% think the government has done a bad job on immigration, 63% think the same on law and order, 62% on tax and 52% on the NHS. The one encouraging number for Brown is that only 37% of the public think the Conservatives are ready for government. However, one has to assume that this number will rise between now and 2009.

Ian Kirby reports that Douglas Alexander is taking a lot of flack over the whole debacle of expectations been raised dangerously high only to be dashed. Indeed, Brown now faces a mandate problem with 55% of voters thinking he needs one. As Kirby writes,

Mr Alexander’s reputation was in tatters last night.