Having lead the UK for nearly three years now without an election to his name, Gordon Brown has finally drawn the battle lines, giving the voting public just a month to make up their minds. The 6th May 2010 has been confirmed as the date of the election for Prime Minister in the United Kingdom and with the televised debates still to come, there’s plenty of time for things to swing either way.
With all three of the big party candidates all debutantes at the Prime Minster election game and opinion polls being tough to call, anything could happen, including a hung parliament, which would put Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg in a driving seat position if he were to join forces with labour to rule the post recession roost.
Having met the Queen earlier today, Gordon Brown announced the news of the election outside Downing Street to an eagerly awaiting press.
While opinion polls are split – the Guardian’s IMC giving Cameron a 4% advantage and the Sun’s YouGov putting the difference closer to 10% – the reality is that if neither the Conservatives or Labour reach the magic number of 326 seats needed to carry an overall majority, then it will be a hung parliament that we’ll be facing.
The last hung parliament happened in 1974 in which the Conservatives’ Harold Wilson managed to hold onto the leadership thanks to the fact that Labour’s Ted Heath and the Liberal Democrat leader Jeremy Thorpe couldn’t come to terms on a coalition. If you haven’t sorted out your voting card then get onto it now. I’m sorting mine out in the morning, fingers crossed.
