Considerable embarrassment
So it was "tosh". There will be no early election. Gordon Brown will claim that although he considered going to the polls he did not believe it was enough to run on 100 days' track record in the job. He would prefer to have a real mandate for change.
Others may care to note that a poll of key marginal constituencies due to appear in tomorrow's News of the World will show that he could have lost that election. Perhaps this assisted the decision-making process. Having allowed the talk of a snap poll to be ramped up by his key ministerial alliies, having put his party on standby, and having altered government business to allow an election to go ahead, this is a considerable embarrassment for Gordon Brown, and will be a huge morale boost for his opponents. On the other hand, people vote about their finances and their personal security, and not on the basis of red faces.
There is an irony in all of this. Although the Tories said bring it on, they did not want an election which they were pretty sure they would lose. Today some of them will be sitting at home wondering what if...
I'm 
Comments
Good post Nick!
Well, not having the elections is a bit of a come down but, I agree, when the time comes this incident would have all but faded from the voters' minds - as ol' Bill said "It's the economy stupid!". And GB knows that too well.
I should say that for a moment I actually felt a rush of political excitement, which is surely a rarity in contemporary day-to-day politics.
It does once more show that politicians really get in gear *only* when the sweet smell of power is in the air!
Red faces all round indeed. Brown again bottles it.
Well, what a surprise!
To have called an election now would have been totally cynical and grossly irresponsible. If GB wanted a "personal mandate" the Governement should have gone to the country when Blair left, and campaigned with GB as leader.
After the fiasco of the last couple of weeks, when is someone going to start a campaign for four year fixed-term elections?
Maybe if England win the rugby world cup Gordon might change his mind?
Ming Cambell is pushing for fixed terms ...
Sid
There is a bit of me that feels that this is a relief - the thought of 3 weeks of lies, spin and cynical posturing filled me with horror to the extent I was prepared to book a last minute holiday. However, the other (probably larger) bit of me was to hope that at long last we might get rid of this manipulative bunch cf incompetents and restore some sanity particularly in reducing the gross mismanagement of the economy and the public sector deficit.
So, as usual, we have had speculation masquerading as news. Nothing new there then.
(News - a report on facts that have occurred.
Speculation - conjecture about what might happen).
When will the British public start complaining about the fact that the media is making the news rather than telling us what has actually happened. Never I suspect.
An outbreak of sense in the Labour Leadership. No one in their right mind would have responded to media hype, flyong in the face of common sense.
A register , 12 months out of date, up to a million voters likely to be disenfanchised because they have moved home. 20% of voters voting by post with a continuing Posstal strike, and uncertain campaigning weathe!
Carry on , Gordon!
I say give the man a break! He's only been in the job for 3 months and people are already talking up the prospect of a general election and voting Mr Brown out. Although I suppose it must be true if it says so in the News of the World!
Unless I am very much mistaken, the only person who hasn't mentioned the word "election" over the past couple of weeks is the Prime Minister.
I feel the Tories will be delighted with the PM's deciso- simply because thry kew deep inside they would ot have NOT won an Autumn election.
Certainly, the Tories have come out on top of this (What I like to call "Browngate Scandal")- not only because of the fall in Labour lead in the polls, but also because it will now change the impression of Gordon Brown- from a "conviction, tough politician", to a "bottler".
Poor old gutless Gordon. We all knew that he would chicken out but at least his fingernails will get a rest since he has made a decision.
I wonder who he will blame for all the election speculation.
Well then Mr Brown.
Presumably that decision gives you another year to wring out the tax-payers a little more before (cynically ?) relaxing the purse strings a bit in the run up to a 2009 election.
That's Politics I guess.
Nick, that must have been difficult to supress that smirk? Having watched you just say that this was basicaly all Gordon's fault. Truly a good day... even Engalnd won the Rugby
I had expected this to be the outcome, well read faces from all around not just brown but the media too, so much time and money wasted speculating on whether an election was going to be called, i'm sure brown must have had a little snigger behind the scenes at all the to do about an election.
He saved himself(most probably anyone in his position would have done the same thing) Brown is safe for now!
Gordon Brown says he wants to build a record to be judged upon before he goes to the polls. What nonsense! He already has a record: ten years as Chancellor.
He bullied any potential opponents from running against him for the Labour Party leadership; he has refused to hold a referendum on the EU treaty; and now this.
Gordon Brown ought to change his surname to a different colour.
Yellow.
His unnecessarily long honeymoon is finally over.
Nick, you were right all along. This is nothing to do with poll results, speeches in conference or daily headlines. This is all to do with history. Brown never intended there to be an election, and there will be no election. Inexperienced people around him ran around with silly ideas, and in the end, he just had to put a stop to it.
Well, what a surprise!
To have called an election now would have been totally cynical and grossly irresponsible. If GB wanted a "personal mandate" the Governement should have gone to the country when Blair left, and campaigned with GB as leader.
After the fiasco of the last couple of weeks, when is someone going to start a campaign for four year fixed-term elections?
There are plenty of us in the Conservative Party who would have loved an early election.
We're better organised locally than I can ever remember before and people are ready for a change.
Maybe Gordo realised that he might get wiped out in Scotland by the Nats - and of course he will need his Scottish friends in place to push through unpopular laws on England.
We can鈥檛 be surprised to have confirmed to us what we already knew? Gordon Brown is a snake in the grass, the total opportunist; he stole his job with bully boy tactics off an injured political animal Tony Blair.
He then (after 100 days) had the sniff of flooring the Conservatives so he put the country on hold and decided instead to secure himself a job and a mandate but failed in humiliating style.
I really believe what he has done today should be followed by a resignation; it鈥檚 totally sickening again by this discredited Labour party
The standing of politics as a whole is once again the poorer, for a self-serving and undemocratic attitude by those at the highest level of power. Does GB have this country or himself at the centre of this decision? He should have shown some true leadership and backbone and sought his mandate from the people now.
Brown = Coward. If he does not believe that his policies are enough to win over the British population then his policies are obviously not fit to be used. Brown should not be in power, by refusing the election he has just given away his mandate. I shall take great pleasure in voting against him at every opportunity until this phoney leaves office when he finally calls an election in three years. He won't dare until he has to.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Brown is the world's biggest chicken.
Gordon Brown would like the electorate to associate his initials with "Great Britain". After this episode it's more likely to be "Girl's Blouse"!
Dear sirs.
Nick Robinson is very astute and I am sure he tries to be impartial, but to me he alway seems to nit pick somthing derogatory from any government action or statment. A little like Andrew Marr. They look for brownie points wherever they can.
Gordon Brown couldn't win on this one.
In the world of football, this is what would be called a 'wind-up'.
Unfortunately, for Gordon Brown, whilst enjoying the spectacle of the 'hated' Tories being 'wound-up', it all got slightly out-of-control; hence the pull-back.
Whilst this is entertaining for Nick & Co., its relevance to English people and their 'lost' country is totally insignificant.
After all, the fate of England was not even going to be on the agenda of a General Election.
Somewhat surprised by this.
I rather expected him to go now, then electorally he would be a position to go again in 2012 after a (presumably) successful Olympics, riding a national feel-good factor into a fifth term for Labour. Cynical, yes, but also, I suspect, highly effective.
The Tories demanded he call the election now because, conversely, they desperately don't want one right now and hoped to scare him out of it. They, or something else, has succeeded.
How amusing to wacth the mighty scuttle away behind those big black doors of No.10! Shame on you Gordon Brown, not to have stuck your head above the parapet and sought a mandate from the British public for you to lead the country.
I vote for the person AND the policies; I did NOT vote for you Mr. Brown and given the chance to go back 10 years, would NOT have voted for the self-serving Tony Blair. Lies, scandal, shame and hypocrisy and you I'm afraid were part of it all, no matter how you try to distance yourself from it now.
For the first time in my life, I WILL vote Conservative in the next election, but let's not wait too long old chap, there's work to be done and Labour just aren't doing it!
The standing of politics as a whole is once again the poorer, for a self-serving and undemocratic attitude by those at the highest level of power. Does GB have this country or himself at the centre of this decision? He should have shown some true leadership and backbone and sought his mandate from the people now.
Mr Brown now knows what the Tories are up to!
so it could give him an upper hand in years time
this gives gb and his spin doctors another few months to drag british politics down further into the gutter!
Well, if he'd gone for it and reduced the Labour majority, he'd have been critised for going to the country in the first place.
No win situation really.
Not that we have to have an election. We vote in our MPs and the Prime Minister is the leader of the party with the majority. What's the fuss about anyway?
In my opinion, the only people who look stupid are the media for running, as usual, with a story (or should I say speculation) when they had nothing to base it on. After all did Gordon Brown say anything at anytime about an Autumn election? Until he did, there was no news story. So nothing to report.
Just seen Michael Portillo on Sky trying to inflict maximum damage on brown over the event by linking this in some bizarre way to his handling of the crises over the summer (which he did very well in my view). If you say so Michael ;)
Cameron also coming out and saying what a massive embaressment this is and GB has no mandate.
Trouble for the tories, i think, is that most labour voters would only want GB to go when he can win. And a great mass in the middle understand this is the kind of decision all politicians make. So i can see a week or so of embaressment in the commons but no permnanent damage done.
The most significant thing might be if GB feels he had to committ to ruling out 2008 which would mean spring next year not now an option.
Good decision.
May next year I think.
Nick you are my hero, your blogs keep my going :D
Lets look at this accusation of indecision. Had he made this decision any earlier he would
a. have been accused again of spoiling the Tory's conference
b. not have had all the necessary facts about the impact of the party conferences.
Do we really want political leaders who are so 'gung ho'? We need to have more information about how politicians make decisions rather than abuse them when they fail to make knee jerk reactions.
What really worries me is the way in which public opinion can be swayed by a few events. It would be interesting to know how deep this goes. I have been shocked at the vitriol on the bbc comments pages.
This just shows what a coward he is, instead of facing the press he only informs one journalist and gets him to inform the British people.
Gordon Brown is a coward.
But we were told in 2005 that if Labour got back in then Tony Blair would remain PM until the next election. Brown is reneging on that. The people are being saddled for years with a man they were explicitly promised would not be leading them.
There was never any serious reason for GB to call for an election. Sadly GB is no different from Blair when it comes to spin and giving the art of politics a bad name. Sad really for a moment I thought politics was a serious business again.
There is no considerable embarrassment. The only considerable embarrassment is the one that our Nick has to ratchet up to provide him with a weekend story ( no change there). It's a sensible statesmanlike decision not to hold an election. But that our Nick can't see it as this and instead has to trot out the considerable embarrassment argument comes as no surprise to any of us.
The last few weeks have shown that Brown is a cynical as his predecessor...it's Party over Country. In a year's time,however, it will be all forgotten. Perhaps fixed term governments should be the way forward?
This turnaround just shows that GB has nothing but contempt for this country. He thought he could win an election now and be PM for another 5 years. What are the odds he will see out the full term of his leadership. He doesn't care about this country, only himself. We should of had an election when Blair resigned.
Brown is obviously the Hew Yellow.
This may have short term consequences for Brown, but at the end of the day it is only sensible to go to an early election if you are sure it will strengthen your position.
To go from a safe majority to a potentially hung parliament would be foolish and unneccesary. It may show Brown to be weak and indecisve but I am sure it will be the right decision in the end. I feel he still would have would have won the election with a comfortable margin had he gone ahead in November but we will never know...
Well, well. Suddenly, it is not in the nation's interest to have an election, after all the spin and hints to the media from those close to the Great Leader. I suppose he just "bottled it", to coin a phrase.
What a hammer blow for Labour in Scotland . Winning an election was key to stopping the March of the SNP up north. As the SNP rise in the polls Labour are now more at sea than ever!
NR,
Oh come on. Even you cannot claim some positives from this fiasco for the Labour party. GB looks more like the 'Clucking Fist'.
Nick,
Please tell me when GB said there WAS going to be an election.
I remember the media inferences, the Tory insinuations ... but not the PM saying anything of the kind ... or MUST a PM be led by rumour-mongers?
Gordon Brown had no choice.
I know that I would have voted for anybody other than my Labour candidate, not that I have allegiance to other parties, but for the following reasons the Labour party would deserve to lose
a) There was no need for an election
b) Life is hectic enough having to deal with creating enough income to stand still ,covering the extra outgoings including, private medical insurance and extra lessons for children to ensure that they have a proper education; let alone the extra curriculum activites as the schools are unwilling / unable to conduct...without being dragged out in the middle of winter to vote on a group of career politicians, 95% of which I would'nt employ let alone trust with my future.
c) How dare he GB call an election after such a short period, he did'nt do it having originally been gifted the job by Tony, but with rough times ahead , GB thinks he can pull a fast one as the polls were working for him.
Out of interest his leadership during recent crisis is like giving the KIss of life to someone you just knocked over, whilst driving blindfolded, down a busy pavement. It could be strongly argued the lack of investment and poor planning led to the floods, and the foot and mouth disease (released from a Government laboratory...I know this!)which has had capital and maintenance funding reduced.
Oh no Mr Brown what you have done today has saved your bacon.....just!
Well, has he spun himself into a corner, allowing the opposition to weave real policies that might oust him?
To me (and I voted for TB) GB going to Iraq when he did was a step too far, and only showed he's into spin, not meaning.
In the meantime, let me sell off more of the family silver to pay for the refuse collections that are refused!
This is almost identical to what happened to Jim Callaghan - Labours previous Prime Minister elected to office without an electoral mandate. He, too, had one glorious window of opportunity to go to the country and win big time and he dithered/bottled it - and we all know what happened next....seems history does, indeed, repeat itself.
I said when the first lot of post Tory Conference polls came out that Brown was effectively finished. This in the sense that his high point had gone. I still think he would have won an election in Nov, albeit with a small majority then 5 years to catastrophe. Now...credility, judgment gone. The pundits are wrong, this will change the way people think about him. He will lose in 2010.
i believe gordon and his chums have stepped in what is known in the trade as "Brown stuff" ...
NR,
Oh come on. Even you cannot claim some positives from this fiasco for the Labour party. GB looks more like the 'Clucking Fist'.
Well what a relief! As a neutral it would have been excrutiating to have to decide between them and I daresay I'd have ended up going "dog lovers" again. Additionally, given the CSR, its good to have a shot at some half decent policies on criminal justice, drugs, young people WITHOUT having election spin on them. I'd been tolerant of Brown till he started to develop his election tumescence - maybe if he stops showing off I can become tolerant again .....
Hi Nick
If you think Gordon Brown has waited over 10yrs for the top Job, he isn't the sort of person to risk defeat at such an early stage in office.
As for the Conservatives, a pretty decent conference speech from Cameron, with slightly more substance on intended policies etc.. Not enough in my view to change the status quo even though some polls see Labour/Conservative level pegging at the moment. An election next year would give the opposition parties more time to gather momentum.
I do feel though as being a Liberal voter that dramatic change as got to come if the Liberals are going to make any significant gains at the next general election.
Ming Campbell seems a decent man with good intentions, but I don't think he has the vision to reform the Lib dems, the party needs somebody young and new with fresh ideas in order to really challenge the conservatives. Clegg/Huhne no good either, the downfall came when Charles Kennedy left.
Maybe Andrew Neil would make a great new Lib Dem leader??? He seems such a scream :)
Nick,
Please tell me when GB said there WAS going to be an election.
I remember the media inferences, the Tory insinuations ... but not the PM saying anything of the kind ... or MUST a PM be led by rumour-mongers?
I am disappointed. I wanted this election out of the way so that we can get on with our lives!
Nick
Gordon had one big asset: people saw him as strong....now that has completely disappeared. Having played the electorate, played and planned the spin (as ever with New Labour), he has been found wanting.
End of Gordon me thinks and moment Cameron was shown to be the stronger individual.
Yes, Gordon Brown has transformed himself into as big a lame duck prime minister as Jim Callaghan. His days are numbered, he has just extended the number by a couple of years and avoided the embarrassment of becoming the shortest serving PM ever! What is more he will now have to face the consequences of his policies coming back to haunt him over the next 24 months and lead to a defeat that will see the Labour party out of power for a generation. No wonder all the young advisors tried to trap him into calling an election now 鈥 after all they would only gain from his immediate demise.
However the person who should be immediately worried is Menzies Campbell. Why would Brown indicate there will be no election for two years unless it was to encourage the LibDems to get rid of their poorly performing elderly leader in the hope that they would replace him with someone to split the anti-Labour vote and challenge the Cameron phenomenon?
I am disappointed. I wanted this election out of the way so that we can get on with our lives!
A lot could unravel for Mr Brown. UK cohesion vis 脿 vis the West Lothian question and why 50 or so Scottish Labour MPs hold the balance of power will, with the help of Alex Salmond, become a really big issue. The exposure of the fragility of the British economy which is predicated on the management and manipulation of wealth and not its creation will happen sooner or later.
If the Conservatives had won a November 2007 election, it might have proved to be a poison chalice (as it did in 1992 - an election victory too far because they would probably have won in 1997 after five years of a Kinnock government).
Gordon Brown might still however share the fate of Jim Callaghan, but for whose timidity Margaret Thatcher would have been a mere footnote in history and Scotland might still be a settled member of the United Kingdom.
Unfit to govern.
It is clear that the decision was not made on a matter of principal - as nothing in that repsect has changed.
The decision is based on personal advancement.
Government? what government? We have several years of vacuum ahead of us.
As PM Brown is out of his depth.
I always thought that it was 'Good bye Mr Wilson' and 'Hello Mr Calaghan'when Blair left, perhaps it still could be a repeat performance ??
The Labour Party has facilitated a very large proportion of the electorate becoming "postal voters". In view of the present industrial action by postal workers, there was no way that Gordon Brown was going to call an election until this was well and truly settled.
In addition, the electoral register will not be up to date until December and this was another reason why a November election was a complete non-starter.
With these two factors so evident, I am surprised that there has been any election speculation at all. It was obvious that Gordon Brown would not call an election if much of the electorate were likely to be disenfranchised.
Brown is - in Maggie's immortal words 'frit'. Now he is just a cowardly lame duck. Oh what a pretty mess he's got himself into with his 'politcal cleverness'
Brown will certainly be damaged in the short-term because of his indecisiveness and spin.
However, in the long term, ruling out a general election now is a positive thing. The country was not ready for an election now only 2 and a half years after the last one.
If Brown has any sense he will leave an election until June 2009 and in the meantime actually get on with governing the country rather than plotting all the time. And by 2009, all this will be forgotten. 18 months is a very long time in politics and anything could happen between now and then.
NICK
And what's Mr Cameron's response?
Name-calling! Didn't he promise an end to that once?
Still think he's ever going to be PM-I don't. The longer Mr Brown keeps him waiting, the more abuse we'll have, the more policies we can't afford they'll float.
Gordon Brown IS a consumate politician, and I believe Mr Cameron will be well ground down by the time the election comes. As I said before, it's GOVERNING that matters to people & Mr Cameron can't do it.
It's up to fellow bloggers to decide if that forecast is correct, or a good thing if it is right.
He seems to have checkened out.
Hehe, wonder how long his nails are now.
It's laughable how this so-called leader comes up with idea's bottles out and have to have meetings on what to do next, can't they lead for goodness sake?
Wouldn't like be his finger nails when it does come to an election..?
I wonder if chicken is on the menu in Downing Street tonight?
The problem Brown now has is that a recession is coming; the impact is already being felt in some of the more vulnerale ecnomies: perhaps, it will not be a deep one, though it may well be longer and more difficult than most people now expect, but it will hit in 2008-09. Thus by bottling his chances now Brown risks running against not only a accusation for cowardice, but more difficult financial times for which he will be hold almost solely responsible, having been Chancellor for so long.
Is it my imagination or has the power of elections anywhere in the world lost a lot of ground recently?
Let us look beyond our shores and Gordon Brown poring over the runes.
Pakistan and Putin's Russia seem to be intent on carving up power in their respective lands in spite of the little matter of a peoples vote. The people of the former have now voted but another voice has yet to be heard before it is confirmed. General or President.
And the USA seem to think who ever comes out on top of a popularity poll is a shoo-in for replacing George W Bush. So they are electioneering a lot too early.
So now the idea is that we must be able to guarantee winning before we run? Make Parliamentary terms fixed and perhaps somethings will actually be done and not promised to be done every 4-5 years before being forgotten about again.
So Mr Brown. Do something to deserve that personal vote. You have quite a few months NOW!
We have now witnessed the true capability and character of a Gordon Brown. In the harsh glare of leadership, he has so quickly been exposed the number two man he has always been.
As our last PM said "if I knew what the hon gentleman's policies were I would attack them".
Now GB has smoked some policy out of Cameron we can expect some fireworks, so to speak, election or not.
I am not so sure the Tories would have lost this election as you said "they seem to think".
I did not see the Tories thinking that.
I am not a Tory nor a Nationalist nor a Lib Dem and I am a Scotsman and Gordon Brown is a disaster area of the first order, even worse than Tony Blair.
We have now witnessed the true capability and character of Gordon Brown. In the harsh glare of leadership, he has so quickly been exposed the number two man he has always been.
Several words come to mind. Chicken, yellow, gutless etc.
So he tries to get the Tories to publish their manifesto ahead of his annoucement and it backfires in his face.
Try chewing your finger nails some more GB, it gives you protein. As to a recipe for change for Britain, go tell that to the birds.
It will be interesting to see if the tory saboteurs who were determined to bring Cameron down now start showing a bit of loyalty. Cameron has taken a bunch of no-hopers to the brink of victory, and shown Britain that Brown is anything but infallible. Let's hope the right wing loonies appreciate that and start supporting their leader. He sure stared down Brown on this one.
The one thing that has happened with this threat of an election. The Conservative Party has UNITED under the leadership of David Cameron.
Gordon Brown, your a chicken!
It looks as if the score is Rule by Media: 0 versus Rule by Unelected PM: 1.
N'doubt both sides will keep the show on the road for as long as it takes.
It will be interesting to see if the tory saboteurs who were determined to bring Cameron down now start showing a bit of loyalty. Cameron has taken a bunch of no-hopers to the brink of victory, and shown Britain that Brown is anything but infallible. Let's hope the right wing loonies appreciate that and start supporting their leader. He sure stared down Brown on this one.
The one thing that has happened with this threat of an election. The Conservative Party has UNITED under the leadership of David Cameron.
Gordon Brown, your a chicken!
Having forced the Conservatives to show their hand what can we expect next from Brown? Changes to inheritance tax or a reduction in stamp duty on house purchases? Perhaps he will try a speech without an autocue.
I wonder whether Cameron is pleased that he no longer has to fight an election we were sure he would lose (despite his big talk to the contrary) or perhaps slightly disappointed that maybe, just maybe, he could have won a november election.
Find out Nick! hehe
Gordon Brown did not lie because he never said there was going to be an election how plain do you need that telling to you.Brown got this right the tories are only moaning because they wanted five mintues of fame all I can say is HA Ha Ha the right is coming to get you Daviey boy watch your back and your inheritance tax oh and the families extra cash giving tories never.
I didn't want to go out in the rain anyway!
Why on earth would GB call an election this autumn when the indicators say that he would lose seats, if not the election? This really has nothing to do with courage. It has to do with taking a considered and intelligent decision. He's waited a long time to be PM, and won't give it up easily.
I empathise with Suzie regarding the unedifying prospect of three weeks electioneering. I fear however that we now face two years of it and it's concomitant "yah boo sucks" behaviour by the parties - So it looks like emigration rather than a holiday is the way out.
I don't think this is a "considerable embarrassment" for Gordon Brown. If the conditions didn't look favourable he would have been reckless to call an election now. Who would have done any different? At least after another year or so we will be in a much better position to cast judgement on a Brown Government. I say we need to reduce the political carping....
Brown will not last as PM. He is a lame duck already - with no mandate. He alone was responsible for raising the potential for an early election and as usual he has been found wanting. Listen to everything he says - repeated promises, no delivery. Blair was full of spin but at least had some charisma. Brown is a vacuous tax and spend socialist pretending to be something else. The electorate won't be fooled again. Sadly - it is now guaranteed he will hang on for a few years - just like Major - but his days are now numbered. Goodbye Labour and good riddance. You have wasted years of global prosperity.
Gordon Brown has today shown how weak he is as a leader.
One thing that has clearly happened over the past few weeks is that the Conservative Party under the leadership of David Cameron has UNITED.
Brown is a chicken!
So the Labour Party have shown that even with the 'dreaded spin' their LEADER (?) is a bottler. What you have to remember about the BRITISH electorate is that we never forget weakness & even though the Conservatives party are not yet upto to it (YET), GORDON BROWN & his league of 鈥榳et behind the ears novices鈥 (the Millibands are a joke!) are now for ever tainted with weakness & indecision (the new John Majors)鈥 therefore he is now a DEAD MAN walking, no matter what he says now, we know he is not prepared to test it in front of us鈥
Why not test the country about YOU, Gordon, you won on the back of Tony, that鈥檚 all you have鈥o bottle to win on your own! Absolutely weak that鈥檚 why鈥 you could have had your own mandate, but no too afraid, what a pathetic leader! GOD help us with a Conviction Polition who cannot make his mind up, never ever compare yourself to Maggie nor Blair! Just like Major, its over, just time now.
So how is it a "considerable embarrassment", Nick? If you took Gordon Brown's words at face value, instead of trying to find some hidden agenda that doesn't exist (other than in the minds of desperate dissemblers) his explanation is entirely credible. If he held a general election now, the public would be voting on a superficial basis, with nothing more to base their vote on than a few pledges and politicians' outward appearances ("I like the look of him" etc.) Surely, these could not be more insidious terms for holding a general election. If Brown goes to the polls in a year or so from now, he will, as he says, have a track record by which he may be judged. His motivation is plain, plausible and transparent 鈥 which is not something that could be said of former Bullingdon Club member David Cameron.
What an own goal. The tories were about to have a conference where they tore themselves apart, the polls were all good for Gordon Brown. But all the Brown inspired General Election fever pulled them together and everything has changed. Now, by stepping back from the election, Brown looks weak and once again has shown his lack of courage when he has been tested. History will probably show that this moment was the beginning of the end for the Brown Government.
"Perhaps this assisted the decision-making process."
This very British gift for understatement has cheered up my evening in Brussels.
Nick, I remember you on a snippet on the Today Programme on Radio 4, very shortly after Brown became Prime Minister, pouring scorn on the rumours of some sudden snap poll.
You made sense of nonsense, pointed out that Brown had spent far too long getting into No. 10, and that, no matter how sweet the honeymoon, he wasn't going to chance being the shortest serving prime minister on record. It is a shame that the demands of 24hr news mean that a story, which was dead in July, lived on breathing the oxygen of speculation throughout the summer.
Maybe the news should go back to the days of reporting what has actually happened... and if nothing has happened stick on a cartoon until something does.
WHAT A MESS ... Mr Culpability Brown
Suddenly Blair's leadership style and prime ministerial 'shortcomings' look sadly misjudged, and not just from my viewpoint, that of a Blair supporter.
Brown HAS bottled it comPLETELY unnecessarily. There is no other way of putting it. And even some of his OWN party are unhappy. ALREADY! And no Blair around to take the flying bullets!
I hate to be a know-all, especially with my login name, but it's been clear for months that Brown would only call an election if he could win it. Yes, I thought that he would be looking at the 1st or 8th November, and said so on my blog months ago. I couldn't see Mr Cautious PM rushing it until he had enough opinion poll support clocked up in his favour. So, that meant a few months - and only November IF they were in that healthy poll scenario. And anyway, July/August/September are out, as summer holiday and parliamentary recess months, and October is the conference season.
After Cameron's successful conference it has been clear that Brown could not be certain of that. You didn't need to be an electoral analyst to put 2 and 2 together and get zero for Brown.
But it's an amazing tactical or even strategical error on Brown's part to let this story run. And Cameron and Campbell are right to accuse him of "loss of nerve, extraordinary indecision and weakness".
At a stroke Brown has all but destroyed the consensus that had built up that he, somehow, had the right to replace Blair who was none of the things a PM is supposed to be if replaced in office - mad, bad, ill, or dead!
Suddenly, people are questioning things again. Thinking about elections. Wondering ...
And I'm afraid Mr Brown's argument this evening that he wants time to let the country see his 'Vision for Change' beggars belief!
He mentions "housing, health and education" - at least two of which have been worked on flat out for the last ten years!
Hardly "change" unless he's going to throw out Blair's Academies and Health changes (which are largely welcomed, though not of course without contention.)
And what about the growing terror threat within our islands? What about climate concerns? What about Europe? Africa? And what about Iraq?
I don't think it will be long before this PM will have aged several years in this job. And he hasn't got nearly as many in hand as did his predecessor when taking that hot seat.
There's more to being an election-winning PM than not being the other guy.
And just a little P.S. - I don't ever recall Mr Blair being pushed or bounced or cajoled into anything, apart from his leaving. And in that, the figurative knife held against his back was persuasive. But still, even then, Blair himself decided the departure date which would go down in the history books.
Mr GB/PM was reputedly the sly, subtle bully in the background, but Blair never let us take our eye off the actual leader - HIM.
Brown has got used to thinking that somebody else will cover for him, when he stirs the mixture roughly or wrongly.
The wooden spoon stops with you, Mr GB/PM.
Mr Brown must have had nightmares recently of being the second-shortest serving Prime Minister in history.
If you want to see when I think he'll NOW call the election, please go and click through to my site.
I'm not quite with Nick on this one. But then, I'm only an amateur.
Since winning the 2005 election this Parliament has been all about Gordo becoming PM.
First in 2005, after the election, it was all about a lame luck PM an when he would go. Though the nation was led to believe that Blair would serve a full term.
But Brown didn't want that, he wanted power sooner. A year ago Blair was forced to inform that he would go within a year.
We then had speculation, again forced on by the Brown lobby, of when.
As soon as Blair went, all we have had is "will he, wont he"?
In short this government has done nothing in the past 2 years, because Brown couldn't wait to get up the slippery pole.
Cosy QnA with Mariella Frostup in Bournemouth simply miguided him to elevated self worth.
Mr Brown you have been caught out, and you only have yourself to blame.
I'm sure Gordon has been very pleased with the way that everyone has been talking about a general election and almost noone has been talking about the EU constitution recently.
With the prospect of being able to crow about 20% income tax and a bumped-up cash ISA limit that conveniently begin 1 month before next years local elections in May, I'm sure that Gordon is rubbing his hands together at this smoke-screen and not feeling the slightest bit embarrassed.
"Perhaps this assisted the decision-making process."
This very British gift for understatement has cheered up my evening in Brussels.
Why should Gordon Brown have called an election on the heels of David Cameron's personal baiting of him? Wouldn't he then also have been criticized for trying to match Cameron's political bravado? Why shouldn't he put substantive governing above political combat as the basis of securing public support? If, as the pundits are always insisting, politics always trump policy, then Britain will only further Americanize its political process.
Well I did tell you so. It was never going to happen and I posted as much over a week ago. I confess though, in recent days you lot in the media almost had me persuaded.
Gordon's mistake was not nipping this in the bud some weeks ago. I think it has become important now because his judgement has never before seemed to fail him. He'll need a big political victory of some kind quickly to get back the momentum. For sure the honeymoon is over and the momentum is with David Cameron now.
If Brown looses in two years time, this day will be remembered as Black Wednesday is remembered as the day that John Major began living on borrowed time.
Thank you Gordan Brown for having the courage to draw the Tories big ideas out in the knowledge that you would take a few hits in the process.Now you can go about demolishing their dodgy economics.
When did the PM say that there was going to be an election
The whole thing was led by media speculation by so-called insiders like you
Why not report the facts instead of trying to second guess what might happen.The sooner you report the story instead of trying to be the story the better
Dear Gordon,
Just to say a big thank you for being so caring to us oldies.
We will all have to hang in there that bit longer now, to ensure we receive David's Inheritance tax bribe!
PS. Perhaps you can now resolve the pensions mess you helped create... whilst you are still around that is.
Oh! by the way, now is not the best time to buy back all that Gold of ours that you almost gave away in the good old days at No 11.
So it is Gorgon Yellow from now on! :D
Last Qestion Time Programe showed Labour are nor just riddiculed. People are saying it feels like when the conservatives were last in power, nothing they could say made any difference. labour's bolt is shot. totalitairianism as the only policy has had its veil removed. Gorgon is scared rightly of th epeople, no EU vote no UK vote goodbye Gorgon andLabour now just a matter of time.
Can we have our EU Referendum instead then?
Its a good call, as far as I am concerned. We dont need someone to set a precedent of having elections every few years. Once every four or five is more than enough!
We voted for a government in 2005, I cant be bothered to do it again until 2009 or 2010.
Since I am not British, I was wondering can the Queen ever call for an election for example now that GB looks whipped by his own plans? Anybody know the answer?
Pathetic
大象传媒 currently spinning away how this is some wise decision by a principled statesman after building up the speculation and doing its utmost to bad-mouth the Tories
Bluff called, and Brown, as usual, bottled it
He has form....
Wow! He bottled it.
The only thing Brown is showing at the moment is that he is very bad at spin, unlike his predecessor. I think Brown will hang in there until the last minute, but now things will turn against him and any announcement will be deemed as spin, or a disaster, or poor decision making. I dread to think what a mess we will be after his change program is rolled out, but no doubt the Labour Party will have a long time to consider that from the opposition benches.
The ones to blame are the herd of lackeys around Brown who have never done anything other than live in the political bubble and hence lack both experience and judgement. They spend their time trying to win his favour by flattering him and answering to his every whim, no matter how ridiculous. I'm looking at you Balls, Alexander, Livermore etc.
This is a sound decision by the Prime Minister. The conduct of some politicians and the media is something that would be usefully reflected on. This stank of opportunism and fanning the flames of hysteria which is precisely the opposite of what the country needs. Indeed, I note the rise of the Prime Ministers authority and surge in popularity for bringing much needed clarity to bear.
I鈥檓 very pleased and relieved that the Prime Minister is focusing on delivery and an election based results. If nothing else, it will help underline the importance of sound government, staying in touch with the people, and long-term patience. The opportunism, hysteria, and selfishness this situation kicked up is why Britain is broken. It will take a little more time to move beyond that.
I can鈥檛 say the habitual calling by the Liberals for electoral reform or the Conservatives appealing to greed is very helpful. As much as Labour can be obsessed with gesture politics, the most important thing is for parliament to realise it鈥檚 part of the problem as much as the solution. Rules and desires are mere vehicles. Bad example continues to make them unfit for government.
Everybody can see through Gordon Brown's lies. To sit there today and say that polls had nothing to do with his decision is ludicrous.
I've no respect for a man that lies to the voters. I'll be voting against him at the next election.
I think this episode will go down in political history. It will be remembered for Brown's dithering and Cameron's life saving speech.
Brown has always done this sort of thing though; he could have been an MP in 79 but he waited until 83. He could have been Labour leader in 94 but he stood aside for the now almost completely forgotten Tony Blair. In the past, waiting has always served him well. However I think this time is different. Although people vote on finances and security, by planning an election then pulling back at the last minute, Brown has tarnished his previously strong and robust image, and that may do more damage in the long run than any scandal or economic downturn. By waiting until 2009 to call an election, he may well have ensured that it's Mr. Cameron who will be calling the election after that.
So,Gordon Brown,the Great Intellectual,the Super Brain,the "Great Clunking Fist' turns out to be "a nail biting wimp" who hasn't got the nerve to say there will be no election, in a public declaration to the Nation.Gordon Brown has to resort to a declaration of submission to Andrew Marr in a private meeting to be broadcast to morrow.
So 10 yrs of deception and spin ends in humiliation.
Perhaps now we will have a REFERENDUM as per the Labour Party Manifesto .
as usual, we have speculation masquerading ad news. Unless I am very much mistaken, the only person who hasn't mentioned the word election" over the past couple of months is the Prime Minister,.
And isn't that why they call him Macavity?
"His powers of levitation would make a fakir stare,
And when you reach the scene of crime - Macavity's not there!
You may seek him in the basement, you may look up in the air -
But I tell you once and once again, Macavity's not there."
The gang of three Ed,Ed and Alex might reflect on their inadequacies as being advisers.
Gordon might reflect on having them
as advisers.
The government has become arrogant recently on the back of poll results and this is the public reaction.
Steve Taylor
This is disappointing. Brown does not have a clear mandate to govern, and this would have given him the opportunity to find out if he has. The Tories would find fault whatever- that is the job of opposition. I did not want Brown as PM, but am eating my words as,so far, he has proven better than ever Blair was in his whole term of office, just on the lack of soundbites alone! Refreshing!
So it is Gorgon Yellow from now on! :D
Last Question Time Programe showed Labour are now just ridiculed. People are saying it feels like when the conservatives were last in power, nothing they could say made any difference. Labour's bolt is shot. Totalitarianism as the only policy has had its veil removed. Gorgon is scared, rightly, of the people, no EU vote no UK vote, goodbye Gorgon and Labour now just a matter of time.
Gordon Brown is an arrogant and charmless politician whose acolytes fed the media with talk of a brave appeal to the electorate for a mandate and then completely bottled it when opinion polls suggested he might lose. It will take him a long time to recover from this debacle; you can see now how much better Tony Blair was at handling the basics of governing with popular appeal. No doubt Gordon wil blame the media!
I am astonished that we allow a prime minster to be appointed without any election or opposing candidates even in his own party to choose the timing of his madate election at the whims of polls and presumably fear of Cameron!
I am not a frequent political hack prefering to blog about other things, but this one has got my goat. I argue that it is time that we take this power OFF a prime minister and Cameron should pledge that he will do just that if elected!
Mr Brown indicates that there will be no general election after all in 2007 nor, probably, in 2008. This, after himself stoking the fires of an election.
His humiliation is complete.
He has snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and made himself a laughing stock. It is richly deserved and somehow utterly condign after all that prissy son of the manse with a moral compass guff.
The press are having enormous fun and so are the people. There is dancing in the streets, jubilation and a national mood of celebration which will warm the winter and fuel climate change for months to come.
Just one thing. This empty buffoon, faute de mieux, has to represent us at international summits for the foreseeable future. And he can't, can he?
The jollity will not be reserved for these shores. Can you imagine the jokes in the EU? At the G8? How will the IMF refer to the new mood in Britain? "Modified authority"? Will Africa want to be rescued by this man? How does our man at the UN speak with a straight face? Will NATO bother to listen? Can you imagine the embarrassment when George W. Bush, charitable Christian that he is, expresses his sympathy?
This can't go on. We've got wars to run. How can our generals accept Gordon Brown's political direction? We can't be represented by a demonstrable charlatan. A man who put his self-interest ahead of the country's and then couldn't even get that right.
There jolly well will be an election in 2008. And I can tell you now who is not going to win.
What l dont like is the fact that GB does not have a mandate to do jack squat. He is spinning away and coming out with excuses like today and it may be well into next year before an election. As far as l am concerned this man does not have a mandate to be PM. The law should change so that if someone "inherits" the position as he did he "must" go to the polls within 6 months to gain or attempt to gain his personal mandate.
It's obvious that GB is an intelligent and diligent PM. The problem is that he seems so personally hung up on issues of class and power that he can't make the right decisions for himself, his party or the country. Get rid of him for an equally diligent and intelligent man who is comfortable in his own skin.
So it is Gorgon Yellow from now on! :D
Last Question Time Programe showed Labour are now just ridiculed. People are saying it feels like when the conservatives were last in power, nothing they could say made any difference. Labour's bolt is shot. Totalitarianism as the only policy has had its veil removed. Gorgon is scared, rightly, of the people, no EU vote no UK vote, goodbye Gorgon and Labour now just a matter of time.
The most concrete dirt the press and the Tories can come up with is "he allowed his ministers to speculate about an election". Give us a break, there's no story here!
Gorden Brown is a politician,and all politicians want is power.You have it for a few more months Mr Brown,you coward!! The needs of the country?Theres a scene in LA COFIDENTIAL where the currupt police sergeant played by Kevin Spacey is asked why he became a policemen,he looks with a blank face and says "Ive forgotton"Gorden Brown has forgotton why he came into politics!Or maybe he has not.He still has the power.
Surely GB has to worry a little bit as Alex Salmon has said he is happy to resolve the west lothian question if parliament requests it. If labour were to win with a minority govt they could face not being allowed a core area of their remaining MPs to be allowed to vote on english only laws, as every other party with seats in parliament supports a revision to law as a result of the welsh & scottish assembly. this would make the labour position as government completely untenable. I think tony blair knew that the winds of change would be chilly for the labour party so got out before they hit...
Two points:
Brown tried to use our soldiers in Iraq to win one over the Tories during their conference.
This from the man who has for 10 years been reducing the share of spending on the Services.
Secondly, at a time when both main parties are hard to distinguish on policies, the focusing of resources - particularly of software - on marginals, has shown its power.
Ha...Ha...Ha..!
Gordon Brown is a shameless man on earth.... He got "BOTTLED" it...!
Last time, I remembered that No Bristish voted for him to become a Prime Minister.
Poor Bristish voters, they have to stand for this JOKER for 2 more years...!
Although I'm a labour supporter, I'm disappointed that Gordon Brown has chickened out of a snap election. He has lost face and will regret his decision.
Marie Maurice: how childish can you get? For you, evidently, politics is all about style over substance. An election next May will suit me very well indeed.
As someone has already pointed out this whole pseudo-issue has been media led. Now we will have Sunday papers filled by hacks' laments and then next week they will take up another 'key issue'.
Nick,
You seem to have been taken in by the spin! You were quite convinced that there would be an early election.
Perhaps better sources or a more critical approach needed?!
Cheers
Geoff
What's all the talk (Hugh Malleson amongst others) about a media frenzy - it was Brown's people who leake the possibility of an early election, just as all other "major" announcements are leaked. Balls. Kelly. Alexander. All are named. Not the media, rather the Labour Party.
Or what's left of it. A man with no mandate in Scotland, who no-one voted for in England, is in charge. How the **** did THAT happen. Especially as the man is so clearly unfitted to the job.
I am amazed that some posts here claim that Gordon hasn't lost face because he never said there might be an election.
While that may be true in the literal sense, his team was clearly feeding the media and he could easily have stopped the speculation at any time. He didn't. On the contrary, in his pre-conference interview with Andrew Marr, he made a big play about deliberately not answering a direct question.
As to the long-term damage, I think it may be greater than the Brown apologists might like to think. I really wanted to believe that after Blair we had a PM of stature. For a while I dared to think that Brown might actually be a great statesman. But, no, he is weak, indecisive and cynical. I feel badly let down and that feeling will not go away.
Marie Maurice: how childish can you get? For you, evidently, politics is all about style over substance. An election next May will suit me very well indeed.
As someone has already pointed out this whole pseudo-issue has been media led. Now we will have Sunday papers filled by hacks' laments and then next week they will take up another 'key issue'.
Brown's ability to stand up and lead is once again betrayed by his risk averse and weak posture, he is only delaying the inevitable and the other parties will be exploiting his weaknesses which are becoming more and more obvious. Brown is not the personality we want on the international stage, we are a ripped off nation where everything we do is at cost, we need a change.
The issue of calling the elections will haunt him all the way.It has exposed his underbelly.
More importantly should the PM of the day be allowed to manipulate election dates?
It's a bit of a pity - I was 'hyped' for this election in a way I haven't been before. Genuinely engaged, wanting to get out there and vote, and talking about politics with other people... who also seemed more interested than usual.
I can't help but feel that with the backdrop of a snap election, the uncertainty of whether it would be called, Gordon Brown finally in power and the sudden resurgence of the Tories, this is (for politics) a missed opportunity to get a lot of people talking who normally wouldn't.
Quite apart from a month or two of the government being too distracted to run the country properly...
Sorry Nick but you and the rest of the media hyped this non-election in the first place so why don't you admit the truth? The public may not have the ears the media have access to but not once do I recall any senior Labour politician mentioning anything about the possibility of a snap election. You all have a lot of egg on your faces. Just remember one thing please, the media's job is to report the news and not creating wild speculation. Got it!
This whole "when will an election be?" story was conjured up by the media in the 1st place with the politicians then reacting to it. Yet again, it is a case of the supposed news reporters making the news.
This man is responsible for the last 10 years of mismanagement of the UK. Now he talks of change all the time. Is this an admission that he needs to change his ways? If so, it is an admission of having done it all wrong so far. It doesn't look like he knows whether he is coming or going! It's all a bit of a mess, really. JD.
I have to agree with the point made by Hugh Malleson (entry 7). I am getting extremely tired of conjecture and opinion based news reporting. I don't want your opinion, no matter how well infomred you feel it is. I want facts. The rumour mongering serves no purpose other than to produce white noise.
It seems strange that when the economy is looking frail, as it is now, there is very little claim and counter-claim from the media. They are positively quiet. Of course, we know why that is. As seen by the run on Northern Rock (the only indication by the media of uncertainty in the market) you get a bank run. If it were to be reported tomorrow that the economy was in trouble, we all know that it would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Still, I'm not surprised, after it is well known that you should only ever worry about what isn't mentioned in the "chatter" and I'd say that would be the economy...
A week is a long time in Politics! It's a shame that Gordon's astute handling of challenges over the summer has been tarnished by him allowing some pretty young and inexperienced aides to ratchet up the election hype. Whilst it's the right decision to hold off - the country does not need an election now - it looks like he bottled it and chickened out. There's time for Gordo to recover, but I wonder if the Tories' recovery will now begin in earnest after getting their act together at conference. Meanwhile, Ming must be toast... I'm off to look at odds on him not leading the Lib Dems at the next election. Bring back Charlie?
Dear Nick
I couldn't have put it better myself. "Tosh" is an apt description of this whole fiasco, an appalling lack of judgment by a serving PM. Heaven knows what's coming next because Brown's first 100 days seemed like a well scripted act. This, I'm afraid, is showing us who the real Gordon Brown is, and at this rather unfortunately bizarre point in his Premiership, I can say boldly that his "honeymoon" or "bounce" - call it whatever you will - is truly over.
"On the other hand, people vote about their finances and their personal security, and not on the basis of red faces."
-- there you go again, forever defending Browns movements... you then go on to say that the Tories probably would have lost that election... BIAS doesn't do it justice.
Can anyone confirm just when did
the prime minister say there could/would be an election this year because i only remember Nick Robinson and other bbc reporters guessing that there could be thus causing this frenzy
I think Brown's lost his bottle and marble. He's from a Iron Chancellor to the Brown the bottler. He should't have caused all the speculation in the first place. He's already made history, he is the only Prime Minister didn't go to Oxbridge. I have no objection about that because he handled the terrorist attack, foot and mouth and Northern Rock crisis really well, not prefectly. Perhaps he did it by the book. But look at all the PM who did go to Oxbridge, they could handle the international and domestic issues prefectly well and of course they relied on their cabinent and asked their advice to do the job, it's not a one man team. However, look at Brown's cabinent, they are inexperienced and not good enough to advise Gordon Brown. He really needs all the big gun in his cabinent back. This election fiasco first started from his cabinet ministers, they said too much and now make him like a hopeless incompetent PM and he has to defend himself and his team.
WHAT A MESS ... Mr Culpability Brown
Suddenly Blair's leadership style and prime ministerial 'shortcomings' look sadly misjudged, and not just from my viewpoint, that of a Blair supporter.
Brown HAS bottled it comPLETELY unnecessarily. There is no other way of putting it. And even some of his OWN party are unhappy. ALREADY! And no Blair around to take the flying bullets!
I hate to be a know-all, especially with my login name, but it's been clear for months that Brown would only call an election if he could win it. Yes, I thought that he would be looking at the 1st or 8th November, and said so on my blog months ago. I couldn't see Mr Cautious PM rushing it until he had enough opinion poll support clocked up in his favour. So, that meant a few months - and only November IF they were in that healthy poll scenario. And anyway, July/August/September are out, as summer holiday and parliamentary recess months, and October is the conference season.
After Cameron's successful conference it has been clear that Brown could not be certain of that. You didn't need to be an electoral analyst to put 2 and 2 together and get zero for Brown.
But it's an amazing tactical or even strategical error on Brown's part to let this story run. And Cameron and Campbell are right to accuse him of "loss of nerve, extraordinary indecision and weakness".
At a stroke Brown has all but destroyed the consensus that had built up that he, somehow, had the right to replace Blair who was none of the things a PM is supposed to be if replaced in office - mad, bad, ill, or dead!
Suddenly, people are questioning things again. Thinking about elections. Wondering ...
And I'm afraid Mr Brown's argument this evening that he wants time to let the country see his 'Vision for Change' beggars belief!
He mentions "housing, health and education" - at least two of which have been worked on flat out for the last ten years!
Hardly "change" unless he's going to throw out Blair's Academies and Health changes (which are largely welcomed, though not of course without contention.)
And what about the growing terror threat within our islands? What about climate concerns? What about Europe? Africa? And what about Iraq?
I don't think it will be long before this PM will have aged several years in this job. And he hasn't got nearly as many in hand as did his predecessor when taking that hot seat.
There's more to being an election-winning PM than not being the other guy.
And just a little P.S. - I don't ever recall Mr Blair being pushed or bounced or cajoled into anything, apart from his leaving. And in that, the figurative knife held against his back was persuasive. But still, even then, Blair himself decided the departure date which would go down in the history books.
Mr GB/PM was reputedly the sly, subtle bully in the background, but Blair never let us take our eye off the actual leader - HIM.
Brown has got used to thinking that somebody else will cover for him, when he stirs the mixture roughly or wrongly.
The wooden spoon stops with you, Mr GB/PM.
Mr Brown must have had nightmares recently of being the second-shortest serving Prime Minister in history.
If you want to see when I think he'll NOW call the election, please go and click through to my site.
I'm not quite with Nick on this one. But then, I'm only an amateur.
I also don't remember at any point in this whole affair when GB said he was even thinking about it.
It's the media and people like you Mr Robinson who are pushing this issue. You are just TV folk and nothing more. what gives you the right to dictate when the prime minister should call an election.
Let the man do his job for heavens sake.
I am certainly not interested in any false promises by any one. Just watching and seeing what happens until the elections are due again.
By then I will have had a chance to see if GB is any good at the top spot.
But then in your eyes he would have been damned if he did and damned if he didn't.
To those apologists for Brown now saying that he never suggested there would be an election - he was asked exactly the same question by the 大象传媒 two weeks ago and he could have killed off the speculation then. Instead he chose to say "I think you'll find we're getting on with the business of governing" and refused to give a 'Yes' or 'No' answer.
That's a completely different bit of spin from his statement yesterday.
Incidentally, in Morley near Leeds, there's a door to an office in Station Road that was recently painted in big letters 'Ed Balls Campaign Office'
Surely the only people talking of early elections have been the media, and the Tories.
The PM has not mentioned it, apart from to say there will not be one.
All this is media tripe, whipped up to sell newspapers and airtime.
The Tories are in no position to form a government, and are just blowing hot air.
Nick,
I hope you will be doing a full report on who was spinning the 'election' story to you. We want names.
Surely the only people talking of early elections have been the media, and the Tories.
The PM has not mentioned it, apart from to say there will not be one.
All this is media tripe, whipped up to sell newspapers and airtime.
The Tories are in no position to form a government, and are just blowing hot air.
Oh no. This is terrible news. What is Gordon Brown and Labour doing to the United Kingdom? In 10 years of Blair/Brown there has been changes for the worse to the this country. Crime is up, Gun crime is up, Anti social behaviour is up, terrorism is on the rise, binge drinking is on the increase, under age drinking is on the up, identity fraud is on the up, interest rates are up and more people getting paid below inflation except politicians of course. This is only the things on the up. Job opportunites are down, foreign investment is down, hospital cleanliness is down, education pass rates are down, infrastructure spending is down. Need I go on?? There is nothing positive to report about the current government is there?
Blaire and Brown promised " Labour will be whiter than White " and " a new kind of politics"
It is tragic that they both lied. Who beleives anything he says now ?
I suppose it is better to be a cycling chameleon (remember that one folks) than a headless chicken, a lame duck or even a disappearing cat but Macavity Brown really does seem to have bottled this one! Is it the psychological flaws of which we hear so much about that has caused this I wonder? The best thing to come out of this phoney "none election" is that as the economy seems to be "on the turn" lets keep Gordon Alistair Ed and the rest of the crew of this ship of fools pinned down, in post and having to deal with the consequences of this Labour Government's ten year tax and debt financed "beano". The opinion polls are only just beginning to reveal how much ordinary people loathe and despise this discredited Labour government (I even hear it in the public sector where I work!) Expect a revolving door being installed at Number 10 as Brown seeks to distrbute blame "equally" amongst his ministerial team, add in a few scandals amongst Labour's makeweights and placemen MP's and it will all start to feel like the John Major years again...but this time with a distinctly Nu Labour hue! Bring it on indeed!
So Brown has shown he is gutless, but also he is rubbish at spin, unlike his predecessor. Unfortunately we now have to see what draconian policies he is going to force upon us in the next couple of years, before having the chance of booting him out.
Sad to see those acres of newsprint wasted. Also regrettable that the Blair/Campbell style of spin seems to be reappearing with 'Gordon Brown is expected to announce' stuff coming back to the Today programme.
Oh no. This is terrible news. What is Gordon Brown and Labour doing to the United Kingdom? In 10 years of Blair/Brown there has been changes for the worse to the this country. Crime is up, Gun crime is up, Anti social behaviour is up, terrorism is on the rise, binge drinking is on the increase, under age drinking is on the up, identity fraud is on the up, interest rates are up and more people getting paid below inflation except politicians of course. This is only the things on the up. Job opportunites are down, foreign investment is down, hospital cleanliness is down, education pass rates are down, infrastructure spending is down. Need I go on?? There is nothing positive to report about the current government is there?
Perhaps the British are awakening at last to the cant and promises of people like Brown and New Labour and the lack of action in dealing with the real concerns of British people.
There are so many examples of incompetence in the last 10 years that the platitudes put out by senior labour politicians surely must be judged excruciatingly dishonest. Get on with it Mr Brown and may you follow Blair soon.
I am an emigre, one of many dismayed with the British experience.
At leasr the rugby gives a bit of an uplift wot!
Oh no. This is terrible news. What is Gordon Brown and Labour doing to the United Kingdom? In 10 years of Blair/Brown there has been changes for the worse to the this country. Crime is up, Gun crime is up, Anti social behaviour is up, terrorism is on the rise, binge drinking is on the increase, under age drinking is on the up, identity fraud is on the up, interest rates are up and more people getting paid below inflation except politicians of course. This is only the things on the up. Job opportunites are down, foreign investment is down, hospital cleanliness is down, education pass rates are down, infrastructure spending is down. Need I go on?? There is nothing positive to report about the current government is there?
Shame about the acres of newsprint wasted. Disappointed that Blair/Campbell style spin is coming back with the return of the 'Gordon Brown is expected to announce'tidbits returning to the Today programme.
Nick, the clown Brown hides behind our soldiers' courage in his photo-op with them in Basra last week, then he "bottles out" when having to face his own, compared to the soldiers', non-lethal test - an election! In WWII it would have been called "LMF" - ie 'Lack of Moral Fibre'. But frankly the usual term - COWARDICE - is good enough for me for the clown Brown & his dumb chums.
The only way for the current PM to save himself now from automatic ridicule whenever he hesitates in future (sometimes perhaps even justifiably so) is to UNcharacteristically
seize the opportunity offered by the current discussions about the similarly lie-ridden & deceptive EU's constitutional, but so-called Reform, Treaty. He should give the UK a REFERENDUM on it, & also promise to honour the electorate's decision -
whatever it is. The electorate is quite good at making decisions - even if he isn't!
By the way: who's face will be on my "Guy Fawkes" this Novemebr 5th? Why, the clown Brown's, of course!
I think the PM made an inteligent descision not to give in to media hype and opposition pressure regarding the election.He,I think,is more interested in governing the country; the job we pay him to do.
Gordon Brown may not be having the best weekend of his life. That is taken as a given.
Nevertheless, it seems a bit much for the Conservatives to be extolling the virtues of having the bottle to carry anything out.
Apart from the inheritance tax policy (whereby, the vast majority will not save that much as a percentage of the inheritance given anyway), and stamp duty, little else has been communicated to the public.
And the media can drop the pious aura to since they were central too to the election fever. Even some journalists, that will not be named, were ecstatic the moment the news came. Oh please (!)
And did anyone see Portillo's reaction which was conveniently carried across the news channels? Over the top is putting his sad performance mildly.
Put yourself in his shoes and most of you would have the "Gollum-Like" fixation with power and only be sure when you can do it.
It was always a ropey time to call it - post conference boost for each part plus those scrags at the Mail and Express were doing their usual job - even though the Diana Inquest had started.
The only problem is that it makes David Cameron look even more smug - and 70% of the country can't stand that.
Now that he doesn't have Tony Blair to hide behind, Brown's in real trouble.
Plotting away in the darkness is one thing. Performing in the spotlit boxing-ring of day to day politics is quite another.
It just goes to show, you can have all the spin doctors and news paper proprietors that you want, but given enough time every politician reveals his true colours.
Manipulative and weak, in Brown's case.
Resiliant and unflappable in Dave's (and this from somebody who never thought he's hear himself praising a Tory!)
Unelected labour leader, unelected prime minister - welcome gordon brown.
yet he alone decides the election date - when it suits him.
democracy GB style at work.
new labour the party of big business. when are the trade unions and millions of workers realise what they prop up.
4 year elections. proportional voting system. smaller number of mp's daily accountable to their electors.
'westminster' sited in the centre of britain. one could go on about building democracy in britain.
When parliament; observing the will of the people likely to enter a mandate to eject it, decides to reject the will of the people who elect it; carrying on in office to enjoy the material benefits of an unelected PM and hangers on, then its all for personal aggrandisement and hunger for cake on the make.
This delays and takes from the people. The 'will of parliament' is now the will of a few, not that of the people. It heralds more despotism and spin. When Brown stepped to the rostrum he used sound bites 鈥淪PIN is out鈥, ( replace it with sin?), and 鈥渂ill of rights is in鈥, was the 'lingua lapsa' of 鈥淏ill o' frights鈥.
鈥淚 stand by the NHS, I stand by Education鈥, meaning all is on standby.
A very sensible decision by Gordon. going to the polls would have been political suicide considering that Labour has a still a mandate to run and that the British electorate have still time to digest Gordon's recipes for economic boom, social justice and excellent health care. By trying to bamboozle Gordon into having snap elections, the Opposition parties were trying to dislodge a strong Labour leader who is shaping to be an excellent PM. So give him support rather than harass him. Britain needs a steady hand at the helm.
HOw was the Election talk all media based? was it not the Labour party who recruited people to run an election campaign? I am sure it was, the only reason the PM never mentioned it was because if he had to announce there wouldn't be an election, it could be said he never mentioned there may be one. BUt any one with an ounce of sense new he was gearing up for an election, moving political announce ments going to Iraq during the Tory conference to announce troop withdrawal 50% of which had already been announced, all designed to steal headlines. And because it has backfired and the tories have rallied in the polls he has bottled it. He says he is the change from Blair (don't make me laugh) he has effectivily been running the country since 1997 Blair could not have done it without him or he would have ripped the Labour party in two. In my humble opinion Brown is as bad as Blair was and the sooner he is voted out which is looking more possible every day the better.
Gordon had the choice of egg on his face by being voted out of office, or egg on his face by clinging on to office. He did what was right for 'Clunking Fist Gordon' - nothing new there. He clearly felt he could have won the election prior to recent events - and started the wheels in motion - asking for Union dues a lot earlier, changing the order of Government business, air brushing Tony Blair out of the history books, employing campaigners etc - and what looks like a quick blast of the Atkins Diet!. However, the public are fed up of stealth taxes and so the Tory plans on 鈥 imho - unjustifiable inheritance tax etc nailed him to the wall - and he knows it. I wonder what stealth taxes he is thinking about next. I think that any Government that needs this amount of tax to conduct its business is bloated and inefficient. But there again 鈥 someone has to pay for those cosy government pensions, housing allowances, and of course the Doctors and Nurses that Gordon likes to use as justification 鈥 aka 'cover' - for just about every tax imaginable.
I have to say it has been lovely to see the Labour Government in a spin for once rather than admistering large doses of the same to the voters.
Give Gordon a chance ! He has only been at the centre of power for ten short years.
He should be proud of his achievements on financing the Iraq war,tax credit system, increasing personal and national debt (despite increasing taxes) and the pensions raid !
An election would have been a wonderful platform to trumpet such success... add the new smiling persona and you have a winner of X factor proportions ! Next month he could have been an X - prime minister !
It's very loyal of some people in here to assert that there was never the intention to call an election, just media spin.
Out of interest, does anyone here actually believe that GB wouldn't have gone to the polls if, after the Tory conference, he was still 8-11% ahead?
I think the political embarrassment is more the sudden swing that the indecision.
He didn't promise an election and the media did fuel a lot of the speculation. However he didn't make any attempt to stop the rumours either. I think this time last week he was almost definately going to the polls. However, by failing to stop the election talk he stirred the Tories and Cameron into a great conference and speech which closed the gap in the opinion polls.
I like GB but he dithered over this and has given the Tories an advantage now.
But what should be remembered is when the possible 2008 election window reopens next February, this will be gone through again.
brown says he listened to the public tosh he does not listen to them on a referendam hes all hot air and crap,he just wants power
When Neil Kinnock announced there was definitely not going to be a general election, I pretty much assumed it was going to be inevitable.
Must be nice for Neil to get it right for a change...
I think you are being very biased.
Any politician labour, right or lib etc. would have done the same if they were given the same electoral evidence.
Give Gordon a chance!
Would have been great to have the opportunity for a change now. If not in government at least in direction Brown is taking a huge gamble, if the economy heads south (which on balance is a distinct possibility) then he may well rue the day he chose to delay the election.
But what should be remembered is when the possible 2008 election window reopens next February, this will be gone through again.
Nick - its the 大象传媒 that keeps telling everyone that the Conservatives didn't really want an election.
Many of us did and think we would have been in government in 4 weeks time if one had been called.
The 大象传媒 must stop trying to put spin of stories that seek to damage and question the Conservative party's motives, when they give Gordon Brown (Marr's tea and sympathy raid yesterday) such and easy ride.
It won't just be documentaries about the Queen or TV telephone competitions that people wonder about.
What would have been the point in an election at the start of winter when it is usually cold and dark early. People would not turn out. We should definately have an election in may 2008 to allow us to decide who WE want to run the country and not who the labour party members want.
UK must move to permanent fixed terms of Government. There is no way that a manipulative PM should have the right to decide when his/her ratings suit an election. This is why the US now have fixed terms [and max of 2] for Presidents. Roosevelt was there for too long.
One for you David Cameron when in power.
What would have been the point in an election at the start of winter when it is usually cold and dark early. People would not turn out. We should definately have an election in may 2008 to allow us to decide who WE want to run the country and not who the labour party members want.
Well, well Nick.
Bigging up Brown as a master tactician, slowy building up his 'change' agenda and looking like a titan amongst politicians. Building up his big tent of 'all talent' and then fired off his masterstroke - rumours of an election.
Not forgetting the appalling manipulation of our brave soldiers during the Conservative conference.
And now, faced with a Tory fightback, the very people Brown failed to acknowledge in his own keynote conference speech, he has bottled it.
No Bottle Brown.
This is nothing short of a disaster for Brown and the Labour. They are weak, can't take difficult decisions nas has been too busy preparing for an election than leading the country.
He's damaged goods now, an electoral liability and unwittingly made the Conservatives into a powerful election force that will have to be reckoned with now, more powerful, more ready with more time to prepare.
He was led into this by his own arrogance and advisors who he appointed. He had even booked the place to make the announcement. People who say "he didn't say we were going to have an election" should remember he refused to say we were not when given plenty of opportunity to do so by THE MEDIA and took ALL possible measures to prepare for one. You may be fools but the latest polls would suggest the public are not.
Blaming the media for reporting what senior government officals are saying to them about a major national event is ridiculous. You are as out of touch as he is.
The media hAve been very tolerant of Gordon Brown and to start pouring scorn on them in the way Labour ministers are now doung on national TV may be a costly mistake.
I expect he will not let the legitimate media near him now until the fuss has subsided. Strong?
Gordon Brown's strategy is apparent. Why should he risk everything this autumn, when by going full term he gives the rogue elements on the Tory side another two years to rip into their leader?
That's what they were doing with gusto before the big conference speech, and that is what they will do over and over again.
He was too clever by half and now he's hoist by his own petard.
He said nothing about an election,he left that to his minions who helped build the rumour,never actually doing anything but inferring.This left opposition parties chasing their tails which must have afforded much merriment in the Labour camp.
Now the tables have turned and they are left with egg on their faces.
So no election then Gordon.
A decision made for yourself and not the country.
While we wait for you to have the courage to risk a vote can you please stop spending our money.
I think Gordon Brown will prove to be one of the most unpopular and unwanted Prime Ministers of our time.
David Miliband is in a good position to challenge for the Labour leadership. The 'two Davids' battling it out - now that would be a serious contest. Cameron and Miliband - bring it on!
David Cameron is doing an excellent job. Gordon Brown has lost the plot.
"Please tell me when GB said there WAS going to be an election."
Funnily enough he didn't squash any election talk until polls were published showing that he was behind the Tories.
Take your blinkers off.
I think we will be looking back to this period in 2009, not because of the embarrassment Brown has brought on himself, but because I think the political wind has changed for Labour entirely - I predict that the Tories will maintain and even extend their lead in the polls. Brown will probably regret not calling a snap election on day one of becoming PM.
But now theres a danger (and Cameron is running stupidly towards it with open arms) of the opposition leaders looking childish in trying to score points, this could easily backfire for the tories, and Cameron cant resist it. If i see Camerons smug, childish, petty face once more, itll be too much. Knock yourself out C, carry on as usual GB, its all good
"'23 September: The prime minister repeatedly
refuses to rule out an early election during a
"curtain raiser" interview with Andrew Marr as the
conference gets under way.
He declines to give a "running commentary" on
his deliberations but also declines to rule out an
autumn poll, insisting merely: "I think you'll find
that I'm getting on with the job."'
Why do the mostly Tory media (with a smattering
of Trotskyists manque) insist on being told of an
impending election in advance of the PM going
to see the Queen?
Brown refused to be bullied by your lot:
MacCamaroon gave way and is now committed to
taxes which don't add up, and policy reversals
which he doesn't like.
The MacCamaroon bounce is partly people liking
a plucky underdog, unlikely to last very long,
until the next Simon Cowell victim on some
reality tv programme I expect.
And those who, like myself, preferred 2009 for
an election, leaving a fairly standard 4 year term
since the previous one, can enjoy another 18
months of faux wisenheimers winding up their
hyperbole on the economy, again, and again, as
we have for the previous 10 years.
I suspect that GB was never intending to have an election; why should he? He has a good majority and time to play; while all the media has been trying to manipulate matters attention has been drawn away from the intention to approve the EU 'treaty' so we can be presented with a fait accompli this month: then we shall be governed almost completely by the EU commission and our parliament reduced to a cipher.
your times up gordon! labour is nothing but full of hot air & lies.this country has been taxed to the hilt & very soon this pathetic government will be out on its ear.this country is well & truly clapped out & knackered under 10 years of labour.the people of this country will vote this shower out and elect the consrvatives in when the bottler calls it! long live churchill,thatcher & soon tobe cameron!!!
What is wrong with regular voting in a democracy?
Answer that GB!
If you are planning so much change then your mandate must have a consensus from all of us.
If not then when eventually there is a change of government - then these changes will be undermined or reversed causing unwanted change to the country (AGAIN).
You can't win with confrontation in a population of 60,000,000 people, if 20 million of them fundamentally disagree with your decisions.
The face saving decision on this affair would be to back the introducion of fixed terms with known dates and reduce the term to 4 years. So we know when the elections are coming.
I think we will be looking back to this period in 2009, not because of the embarrassment Brown has brought on himself, but because I think the political wind has changed for Labour entirely - I predict that the Tories will maintain and even extend their lead in the polls. Brown will probably regret not calling a snap election on day one of becoming PM.
As this episode recedes, perhaps English people could consider where their country is to be headed.
After all, the Scots and the Welsh are set fair on a course to self-determination.
Are the English so politically lazy that they are prepared to simply wait it out and wake up one day and find that England's 'partners' in the so-called Union have simply walked away.
I suspect that is precisely what will eventually happen, given the notorious political apathy of the English.
I think we will be looking back to this period in 2009, not because of the embarrassment Brown has brought on himself, but because I think the political wind has changed for Labour entirely - I predict that the Tories will maintain and even extend their lead in the polls. Brown will probably regret not calling a snap election on day one of becoming PM.
Now we see why Brown and Darling are making big announcements on Mon/Tue. This will move the media coverage on from the non election and back to the governments agenda.
In the US, the Republicans use an elephant as a symbol for their party, while the Democrats us a Donkey. Obviously, the Labour party intends to use a chicken!
lets face it folks - Brown bottled it. No matter what way you spin it, he chickened out.
Now also bear in mind the stakes that Cameron was playing - if Cameron had lost that would have been the end of him, and indeed the end of the Conservative Party itself. After losing 4 times they would have split into bitterly recriminating left and right factions - the Europhile "one nation" Tories versus the Thatcherite free-marketeers.
But instead we get dithering Brown, with absolutely no electoral mandate, biting his nails and seeing a resurgent Tory party in the polls - he bottled out. And I call it for what it is - cowardice.
The man is undeserving of the seat of Prime Minister.
I ask the qeustion - would Labour have taken this situation in the January? Probably yes. Back then they were well behind in the polls and slipping away. Brown has levelled things up as his honeymoon comes to an end. He's dealt with several crises, and has been stung by a bit of political naivity when maybe he should have either thumped home his advantage or put down the rumours asap.
Nevertheless - it is surely Labours 100 days.
Polls are awful. Always have been I'm afraid, how can polls fluctuate so wildly without some sort of error - not that many people change their minds that quickly. The media needs to get real.
In the long term, I think this will turn out alright for Brown. He has made the tories spew out their best ideas - he might nick inheritance tax plans which would be a good and easy steal, and really muck up the tories if Brown was seen to be picking off their best bits.
It is a bit of an over-reaction to say that Brown is dead and buried. Far from it. If the Labour Party keeps its head and stays united, the tories will capitulate on themselves again and stab yet another leader in the back. Cameron has done very well - but how much policy and political initiative on key areas like tax have the tories used up?
They can't get carried away. It is neck and neck in the mid-term of a government, remember. Brown still has a few things up his sleave, but i wonder if the tories have anything left....
we shall see in 2009/10.
At least Tony Blair smiled when he was lying to us
Nick,
glad all this press-led hysteria is out of the way now. The real stuff can start. This will be forgotten in a couple of weeks. What really interests me now that we know what the "modernised" Tories stand for are a couple of things for starters- what do they mean by U.S.-style welfare and why was ultra-hawk John Bolton at the Tory conference whipping up support for an attack on Iran
Oh no. This is terrible news. What is Gordon Brown and Labour doing to the United Kingdom? In 10 years of Blair/Brown there has been changes for the worse to the this country. Crime is up, Gun crime is up, Anti social behaviour is up, terrorism is on the rise, binge drinking is on the increase, under age drinking is on the up, identity fraud is on the up, interest rates are up and more people getting paid below inflation except politicians of course. This is only the things on the up. Job opportunites are down, foreign investment is down, hospital cleanliness is down, education pass rates are down, infrastructure spending is down. Need I go on?? There is nothing positive to report about the current government is there?
Why should Gordon Brown have called an election on the heels of David Cameron's personal baiting of him? Wouldn't he then also have been criticized for trying to match Cameron's political bravado? Why shouldn't he put substantive governing above political combat as the basis of securing public support? If, as the pundits are always insisting, politics always trump policy, then Britain will only further Americanize its political process.
To be honest with you, I think Labour handled it all with more composure. All the shrill chatter that Cameron and his party have been coming out with throughout this circus are going to come back to haunt him.
The Tories rash and populist policy announcements won't pan out, and now Team Brown has something to start debating them on.
Oh how foolish can a man look? And it is Brown himself who is sat alone on the hill, scared of the electorate and prepared to give himself more time to warp us round.
Unfit for power
Brown is not prime-minsisteral material and he knows it.
He loved being in blairs shadow and pretending that he wanted the top job - but it wasn't true.
He is not a decisive leader - and he knows that his flush is bust.
Now the UK have years of vacuum to look forward to with no real leader.
"Under your leadership [this] Party appears to me to have ceased collectively to believe in anything, or to stand for anything. It has no bedrock. It exists on shifting sands. A sense of mission has been replaced by a PR agenda. Although you have many positive qualities you have three, superficiality, unreliability and an apparent lack of any clear convictions, which in my view ought to exclude you from the position of national leadership" - Quentin Davies on Cameron's Conservatives when he defected.
My how the tables have turned!
The best the Conservatives could have got would have been a hung parliament, but it might have been enough to shake the government out of office if a second general election had to be held.
Oh well. I've been desperate to avoid an election myself, but I have to admit that I wish we'd had one now.
No wonder Dave and his pals are miffed - they've been taken for a ride.
They can't even accuse GB of spin since he did nothing. He didn't have to - the media and the opposition happily whipped themselves up into a frenzy of speculation without any help from anyone.
All GB had to do was wait until the excitement got too much for Dave and he went off prematurely.
The inheritance tax bomb was the biggest weapon in the Tories arsenal but now Labour have plenty of time to neutralise it. Can't see the Tories coming up with another shock and awe tactic as good as that in the next year or two.
Now then Dave, where did you leave that box of tissues?
Can someone from the 大象传媒 explain why half of the analysts published on their "Pundits verdict" page are from one newspaper (no prizes for guessing which ;)).
We all no their are strong links between the 大象传媒 and The Guardian - so why don't you just stop the farce and admit that you share a common ideaology.
Admitting it is the first step.
The significance of the Scottish angle seems to have been completely ignored here. (Odd, since the network media were previously so obsessed by Brown's Scottishness). The Westminster polls in Scotland show Labour flatlining since 2006, SNP surging and LibDem support halved. Consider just how important Scotland is to Labour's numbers, and (as the Americans say) 'do the math'...
1. Will the Government postpone the CSR review as there is now no justification for this being made on Tuesday?
Amusing how many people are prepared to believe Brown never intended to call a snap election and it was all the fault of the media. Just what do these people have to learn to judge politicians ? Interesting that he chooses the soft 大象传媒 interviewer on Sunday morning to eat humble pie with.
#104 The significance of the 'Scottish angle' is not lost on this Englishman.
It is staggering that the Westminster based politicians and media simply bury their collective heads in the sand and simply pretend that this 'drift away from the centre' is not happening.
But it is.
Even Glasow hero John Smeaton, wheeled out by NL for their own political purposes, tells us that Scotland is now 'buzzing' thanks to Alex Salmond and the SNP.
What is it going to take for the English people to wake up and smell the proverbial coffee?
There are still some people here who are blaming the media for all the speculation about the election. But those who criticise the media ought themselves to get their facts right. The truth is, it was the Labour Party which was responsible for this speculation, along with Gordon Brown鈥檚 advisers and government ministers. Jack Straw admitted as much on the Today programme when he accepted that the media 鈥 in his words - had not dreamt it up, and that the government had certainly considered an election. All those who were busy talking it up could easily have discouraged it. But they chose not to for their own reasons, thereby continuing the election frenzy.
GB announces he is going to bring home 2500 troops by Spring. But you and your colleagues devote most of your coverage to whether or not he should have called the election the media men invented.
Critics divide into schoolboy jeers (chicken, weed, blighter, miserable Hun, Bad Egg etc); GB hasn't got a mandate: No Tory took over without an election (except Chamberlain, Churchill, Eden, Macmillan,but they were serving their country in time of peril!)
He stole our pensions (and tried to buy us with pension credits, Winter fuel allowances etc);
Cameron will cut tax for millionnaires (and those foreign johnnies will pay for it out of their memsahib's hairdressing allowance);
Brown was chancellor for hundreds of stealth taxes (a proper chancellor would have doubled VAT and applied);
Brown made employers go on holiday and steal our pensions - and so on. Why has politics sunk to this level? Because TV journalists have all become comentators, political pundits and opinion formers. They now purport to relate the thoughts of the PM, his opinions etc, and use the authority of, say, the 大象传媒 to turn this garbage into fact. If the minister's reply to a question doesn't suit, you simply replac e it with your own. Time after time, the likes of Neill, Dimbleby and yourself substitute your own speculations as the purport of the minister's (unspoken) remarks- your 'news' team then broadcast those speculations as fact! News manufacture! That is why Brown didn't confirm or deny the election speculation- he would be an opportunist if the polls ran high, a coward if they ran low. No one trusts MPs because they can't separate what they said from what you report them as saying. The only time we can be sure you are telling the truth is when you use such phrases as 'speculation is rife...' 'some questions remain unanswered...' 'it has been suggested...' 'doubts have been expressed...' etc. etc. Sadly true because it is the team of 'journalists' who have 'suggested' 'questioned' 'doubted' etc. Factual reporting barely gets a look in!
Nick,
You seemed pretty confident that there would be an early election!
Perhaps you too need to rely less on the younger elements of the Government!
Cheers
Geoff
I for one am delighted that Gordon Brown 'bottled' it (as usual). Either Labour would have sneaked home or there would have been a hung Parliament - so one or both of the socialist parties would be wrecking the country for another 5 years.
Now the 'pension thief', also known as the 'EU Quisling' will be on the bridge as we suffer the consequences of his post 2000 public spending binge and general economic mismanagement.
Then 'NEW' sorry that should be 'HARD' LABOUR can be sent packing and we can start rebuilding this great country of ours.
Nick
I dont think the media are to blame for the Brown election fiasco.What the UK media did as always was it went over the top and blew the whole thing out of proportion.The whole thing was a minor issue compared with the future problem of the World economy being in a fragile state.Reporting that does not increase the sale of newspapers Westminster gossip does.
Shock! Horror ! Politician behaves like a politician. All these people on about "Brown the Bottler" are missing the point, several times over!
The real reasons for not having an election in November would be:
1 the weather will drive turn out down almost certainly;
2 the weather will make campaigning difficult more than likely;
3 the register is seriously out of date.
The simple fact is that a general who retreats becasue he cannot win is admired for his tactical and strategic sense. But when a politician decides that he is not going to have an election he does not need to have he gets abuse.
Two weeks ago David Cameron did not really want an election but now he thinks he can win he wants one. What's principled about that?
Chris Cheetham has it pretty much straight:
1) A register which excludes 1,000,000 people who will be on it in a month or two is unfair, and traditionally it was believed that those who move around, usualy following work, are more likely to vote Labour.
2) The possibility of postal strikes might well throw a contest into unfair territory, with some candidates egtting their election addresses delivered free, while others might find theirs undelivered.
3) Bad weather would depress the turnout, traditionally counter to the Labour interest, and again, unfair anyway.
Gordon Brown wisely did not attempt to give afull critique of his reasons beyond stressing his wish to put his vision for our future to the electorate, rather than his excellent record as the most successfull Chancellor of the Exchequer of all time, and a PM who keeps a straight bat when our country is threatened.
The Tories on the other ahnd are led by a man who reminds me of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
His limbs amputated by his adversary's blade he still bellows his bellicose challenges: "C'mon, closer, I'll nut yer . . ."
The fourth defeat in a row will defenestrate MacCamaroon or his successor, and split their party three ways, witht eh BNP and UKIP growing at their expense.