Wednesday's PMQs and Polls

Like all political anoraks I was glued to the TV at noon for Prime Minister's Questions. Cameron was certainly faster on his feet and more assured than Brown, but I wonder if the present PM gives a damn. Hague was always considered to be in a class of his own at the dispatch box, but we still lost the next election by 170 seats. I think if Brown held an election today, he'd probably win by 50 or 60 seats, and he must be wondering whether to hold a snap election in October or wait until the October 2008 opinion polls, because if Labour remains 3 or 4 points in the lead he would be remarkably foolish not to go to the country. Despite this, the serious money is still on him going right to the very end and calling an election in May 2010, for two reasons - 1) it's the nature of the beast to complete the full course, and 2) he would be fearful of being remembered as having been Prime Minister for only a few months. If I was in his shoes I would wait and see what the polls are saying in 2008 before I made a decision. Harold Wilson's maxim, a week is a long time in politics, has become a cliche, but that doesn't stop it being just as relevant today as when he first delivered the words over 30 years ago.