Don't do it, Gordon!

Another Labour Party Conference. And once again there has been a media blitz trying to force us into a premature decision affecting our future. Last time it was all about when Tony Blair should go. This time it's all about when Gordon Brown should go to the country.

Great for the Rudolph Murdochs and Jeremy Paxmans of course. with the prospect of an exciting battle for power pushing up newspaper sales and the ratings of political pundits. But not, I submit, so great for the likes of us.

Here we are, only halfway through our term of office with a good majority and still much to do regarding the implementation of the policies we were elected for. A successful election now would give us about four more years of government, just two more years than what is left to us. A successful election nearer the end of our allotted time would give us something like six or seven years more. More time for our policies to work, more time for our values to be embedded, more time to create that progressive consensus which could make this the century of social democracy in this country. Do we really want to run the risk of having all that  snatched away in a matter of weeks?

The counter-argument, of course, is the possibility of losing the election if we delay. I say we have more to lose than to gain by going for it now. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush. The mood of the electorate is volatile. It wouldn't take much bad news, whipped up by a media bent on producing a tight finish, for the polls to swing the other way (as seems to be already happening at the local level, e.g. Sunderland).

Moreover a whiff of triumphalism is beginning to creep in amongst the party faithful, which is never attractive and can be counter-productive. Harriett Harman's "we are ready for an election and we know the British people will vote for us" may  play well to the gallery but to this observer it brought to mind  Neil Kinnock bellowing "We're all right! We're all right" from that Sheffield platform in 1992.

And do not underestimate the hatred that is still smouldering away against this government. Such an emotion is much better at getting people to the polling stations than luke-warm support, particularly on a cold, wet November evening.

No, let us be safe rather than sorry, Gordon, and allow time for that lukewarm support to be turned into the kind of enthusiastic support that can survive the worst that fate and  the Daily Mail's headlines can throw at us.

Comments

[jas weir]

for once I agree with stan, if we are doing well in the polls and believe the "good news" is likely to continue (withdrawal from Iraq, more visibility for the improvements in health/education, low cost housing actually appearing) then steady as she goes, onward and upward towards the sunlit uplands in the Spring? why suggest to a credulous electorate that there is something nasty in the woodshed (economic downturn? pressures on public services? restraint on public sector wages? house price collapse frightening the middle classes? US bombing Iran?)which could rebound in our faces. Too many SE marginals will swallow Cameron's bribe on Inheritance Tax for comfort............on we go and give the "New Gordon" time to bed down,
Fraternally
Jas