Brown - no election cos' I'd lose

Prime Minister's Questions were extraordinary today. David Cameron asked for an election and Brown said no because it would cause 'chaos'. When pressed he clarified that to mean that a Conservative victory would cause chaos. So there you have it. We won't have the election that the country is demanding because Gordon Brown would lose. Politically, this is a bit of a clanger as Gordon Brown will now be accused of 'bottling', again. It also runs counter to press editorials and campaigns for an immediate election in the aftermath of the expenses scandal and the papers won't like that at all. There were numerous better ways to handle David Cameron's question, but Brown unerringly found the worst response. He will rue that in the days to come.

Even Nick Robinson twigged what a mess Brown had made of things.