This email has just gone out to senior Labour election planners, candidates and agents. It gives them a deadline of next Wednesday for them to order their election literature. The wording implies that quite a few candidates haven't actually ordered any literature yet. This weekend's events are clearly of huge importance to the Labour campaign, hence the extended print deadline. I cannot think why they would be doing all this now if an election announcement wasn't imminent.
Surely Gordon can't march his troops up to the top of the hill again?
UPDATE: Thinking about this, what this email does show is a degree of chaos. There was clearly a deadline that they were working to. Some candidates have adhered to that, but these last minute plans for the weekend have screwed things up. One thing is for sure. It will really hack off those who thought their materials were signed off and put to bed but now have to resubmit their words and artwork. Such is the life of a candidate.
Maybe it's the beginning of a massive pre-election fightback?
ReplyDeleteAlthough I've lost count of how many "fightbacks" have taken place to date
Which fits Ian because if dissolution is on Mar 1st, then all use of Govt assets is then suspended
ReplyDeleteIt doesnt make sense, why reveal what you are fighting the election on tomorrow with themes and slogans and then wait 2 and 1/2 months for your opponent to rip it to shreds until the GE whilst they are not revealing their strategy until the election is called. With all the Money the Tories have and Labour dont,the Tories can carry on paying for attack ads and media for ages, an election call stops the extra Tory spending. Maybe Brown is finally doing a “let the chips fall where they may”.
I mean, if it smells like an election in the air then it usually is, which it was 2 years ago, until he bottled it.
Sometimes the simplest solution is right in front of you. Notice Downing St is totally silent, not one official word and not stopping it dead in its tracks, they surely remember the Bottler meme.
Surely Gordon can't march his troops up to the top of the hill again?
ReplyDeleteWell... with a normal politician, Tony Blair, Margaret Thatcher, Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, the answer to that question would be: "of course not!"
But Gordon Brown is not normal, is he?
Perhaps it means an election will be called sometime in the next couple of months?
ReplyDeleteYou've got some great moles Iain - well done Sir.
ReplyDeleteDo the dates work? With easter weekend and easter holiday, he surely can't be going for first two Thursdays in April? So 25 March?? Maybe we should see what Nick Robinson is saying...
ReplyDeleteSay Iain, what is the constitutional thing about calling an election?
ReplyDeleteThe original deadline was February 15. Anyone who has been agent for a number of candidates has holes in the wall at head height as half of them always fail to meet deadlines for copy. Consequently you build the extensions into your own planning whilst trying to work to the originals. Nothing fishy about it.
ReplyDeleteI still think Brown will hang on to the last possible minute as he struggles 'to get the job done'
ReplyDeleteHe like his predecessor is a total coward and will keep hoping for a scrap of good news.
Still June and this is misinformation.
This speculation-stoking is a brilliant strategy to get people interested in Gordon Brown's pointless speech tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteMeant to add too that I think he will wait for the feel-good factor of the extra hour of daylight too. Psychologically very important.
ReplyDeleteIts standard procedure for any kind of collaborative print run, except for newspapers etc of course, to change your deadline a few times. You expect people will never start organising until its too late :)
ReplyDeleteIf it's a late March election then it can only be because Gordon Brown knows what economic news is just around the corner. Every Conservative spokesman should ask their Labour opponents time and time again why the election has been brought forward; what is Gordon Brown scared of, what economic news does he know about that we don't? The BBC will avoid this question so it needs to be pushed by every Conservative (and Lib Dem) in every interview; make Gordon Brown regret his decision to go early.
ReplyDeleteHe might be bumped into calling it early regardless of whether he wants to...even a serial bottler like him couldn't get away with backing out of it again.
ReplyDeleteLike 'British Jobs For British Workers', 'Operation Fightback' is a BNP slogan.
ReplyDeleteWhat else have Brown and the BNP got in common, I wonder? Ah, yes, I remember.
If he wins, one thing's a racing certainty.
ReplyDeleteHe'll be marching us all back down again within weeks.
On Friday the 26th February UK GDP first revision for the 4th quarter 09 is released. As already announced by Brown it is expected to come in at +0.2 so expecting a big build up this weekend lots of fanfair until Friday release then the call for the early election.
ReplyDeleteSo I have changed my idea now to next weekend.