Labour slips, election off

An early election was always going to be a bit of a punt. Brown gets in and polls well over the summer and suddenly the press is a fever with talk of an early date. The Telegraph went so far as to advise the Prime Minister to go early on the basis that the economy might deteriorate and all might be lost. Now summer is over and a bit of sanity is creeping in. The polls show Brown’s lead slipping, and that he is doing even less well in the marginal seats. This has brought home to some commentators what a risk an early election would be. It might work, but then again it might make Brown a contender for the shortest-serving Prime Minister in history. Nothing about the man suggests that he is a risk-taker of this magnitude, and those pumping out the free advice won't be the ones derided in the history books if it all goes wrong. Most senior politicians are serious men who don't regard politics as some sort of elite sport. Brown is certainly a serious man, and he will hope and believe that his policies can make a difference to our country and so garner the sort of support that does not making the timing of an election subject to a sudden spike in the polls. Actually, I think he is wrong about that, but it is not what I think, or what the press think, or even what his entourage thinks, it is what he thinks that matters.