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At long last, the open secret is a secret no more: the actual date of the British General Election in 2010. It will be held on Thursday, May 6th, as predicted in my first Idiot's Guide on the election. Constitutionally, only the Queen can consent to new Prime Ministers and also dissolve Parliament.
The date was announced this morning (at 10.49 GMT) by the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, flanked by his Cabinet members to emphasise 'teamwork', on the steps of No.10 Downing Street. He had his last Cabinet meeting with Ministers, after which he made the short four minute drive to Buckingham Palace to formally ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament then back to Downing Street to make the announcement. The 664 current Members of Parliament (MPs) will now be able to go back to their constituencies for the next month - a VERY short campaigning time - to canvass voters to give them the mandate for another term and to help them retain their seats.
Whatever happens, the new Parliament will look different in May due to a lot of MPs resigning, or being forcibly stood down, because of the MPs Expenses Scandal. There will be many new faces to replace them. By keeping the campaign unusually short, Gordon Brown hopes to limit any potential damage to Labour support; to prevent losing ground in the polls and deprive Labour's opponents of having the time to extend their following or their lead. Whether that will work, or could even backfire, is left to be seen. The main rivals seem ready for the challenge.
David Cameron, the Opposition Leader, who was also up early jogging, was asked by a Telegraph reporter how he felt about the announcement: "I feel good", he said. "It's about time. I'm getting fit for it."
Nick Clegg, the leader of the LibDems said that people had a real choice this time instead of just the old two-party confrontation. "The election is wide open. The bets are off."
This general election will be different from many others because, though the Conservatives are ahead, the movement has been pretty volatile since last year and no one party has had a consistent, commanding lead. To make matters worse, the days of real party difference are gone. The top three parties are all very close in principles and ideology as they all try to avoid any kind of extremism and occupy the 'safe' middle ground. The only thing that is certain is that Labour is far less popular than it used to be, recording its lowest ever percentage approval at the moment, while the Liberal Democrats are seeing the real possibility of government, or even being the deciding factor in a hung parliament, for the very first time, being so near to Labour in the opinion polls.
The next four weeks will see a lot of mail going to homes, hard-hitting advertisements, speeches on the hustings, 'battle buses' touring the country (the LibDems have a shiny new one!) and, the newest innovation which could even decide the outcome, three television debates between the leaders of the parties.
It seems that Gordon Brown will be hoping that voters will want to stay with the devil they know while the other two leaders are hoping that voters would have had enough of Labour, which has had three terms in office, and will vote for fresh ideas, fresh people and a fresh start. Power now shifts from the Houses of parliament (Westminster) to the electorate.
Let battle commence!
See BBC's excellent Live Diary of this morning's events:
<p>Latest Poll Standing for the Parties (Average)
Conservatives: 40% (UP two points)
Labour: 31% (UP two points)
Liberal Democrats: 20% (DOWN three points)
Conservatives have the psychological advantage on this announcement day.
Further info:
The UK Parliament (How Parliament works)
Epolitix.com (Daily news on the hot topics and themes)
