An Early Election Looms
Speculation continues to grow over whether Gordon Brown will call an early election in the autumn after a ‘bounce’ for him and the Labour party in the opinion polls.
Money and donations are rapidly flooding the Labour party’s coffers, which leaves me in little doubt that, if necessary, Gordon Brown would have no trouble in financing an election campaign within the next year.
The Conservative party and David Cameron have underestimated Gordon Brown for some time now, previously attempting to portray him as an ‘analogue Chancellor in a digital age’. Many of them seem to have forgotten that Gordon Brown was just as much the architect of New Labour as Tony Blair. He knows the ways of spin and manipulating the press who are currently content to feed from his hand as they have done for the past ten years.
We know that Gordon Brown is at heart left-wing and socialist. However, in the politics of today, perception is often at times as much as reality. Ever since he became Labour leader (and probably even before then) Brown has sought to dispel these doubt in the minds of the middle class electorate, which is where the next election will be won and lost.
Brown has begun to cloak himself in what could initially be perceived as centrist and centre-right style policies in attempt to sure up Labour’s previously flagging middle class voters which deserted them when Blair was in power. If Brown calls an election in the spring, and announces he will bring the troops back from Iraq, the Left will once again flock to Labour’s banner and David Cameron’s Conservatives will certainly be in for a tough time.
The Conservative leadership need to make a choice very soon. They need to decide whether they wish to carry on as they are currently, struggling to make head way in by-elections, the opinion polls and bickering among one another over small differences, or alternatively, whether they could set out a new vision for Britain, that would sweep away many of the mistakes Labour have made for the past ten years and in doing so really appeal to the British electorate’s current desire for a change of Government that will do things differently.
