Dark days ahead

Sep 26 2007 by Rob Merrick, Liverpool Daily Post

I'M NOW convinced an election cannot be held on October 25 – for so long the rumoured date – and it is Gordon Brown himself who has made that impossible.

Before I explain, it means the Prime Minister is left with a choice of sending voters to the polls on a dark November night, or risking cries of “chicken” by waiting until next year.

Everyone agrees it is a dilemma Mr Brown has yet to resolve, as he wrestles with his cautious nature.

However, for what it's worth, I think he will be making a mistake if, after deliberately stoking election fever for so long, he now delays.

First, October 25 has been thought the most likely date because it is the last Thursday before the clocks go back and darkness descends before we all get home from work.

Speaking to delegates here in Bournemouth, it is clear they are nervous about getting Labour voters to the polling booth in the gloom of November 1, the autumn alternative.

So why not October 25? Well, to hold the election on that day, Mr Brown must call it no later than October 2, allowing 17 working days in between.

The oft-quoted argument against is the Prime Minister's reluctance to play dirty by wrecking David Cameron's planned speech to the Tory conference the following day.

However, there is another – that Mr Brown would have to visit the Queen while Parliament is in recess, because MPs do not return to Westminster until October 8.

How can he possibly square that with his promise, made within days of moving into No.10, to surrender to MPs the power to call an election?

An election after the clocks go back is not ideal, but waiting until May removes Mr Brown's best excuse for going to the country early – that he wants his own mandate to govern.

With the Rugby World Cup in the sporting headlines, it is tempting to see the Prime Minis- ter as the Jonah Lomu of politics.

Just as the powerful Kiwi winger crashed to glory through helpless English tacklers, everything thrown at Mr Brown – terror, flooding, foot-and-mouth, Northern Rock – just bounces off him.

It was never as good again for Jonah – and may not be for Gordon. It's time to reach for the try line.

NOT everyone gets to lift the FA Cup at a party conference, but this reporter did – after helping the press beat MPs in a football quiz. The famous cup was – temporarily – the prize.

That we beat Mersey-born Treasury minister Andy Burnham – a passionate Evertonian – only made our victory sweeter.