Do today’s comments close down the 2007 election suggestions?

I have just listened to the online playback of this afternoon’s “The World the Weekend” and I am almost convinced, like Ben Brogan, that Gord’s loyal aide for more than a decade, Ed Balls has effectively ruled out the possibility of an October election.

If anybody’s going to know what’s in Brown’s mind Balls is.

Listen for yourself and draw you own conclusion. It’s towards the end of the programme. The give-away line from Balls is “It’s important that the public are allowed to see the political choice before we take these decisions.”

The former Labour leader, Neil Kinnock who was interviewed earlier in the programme is worth a listen as well. He ruled out an October poll in such strong terms that it’s hard to believe that he had not been tipped the wink.

I loved Kinnock’s comment about the “transitory nature of the opinion polls” of which he had a lot of personal experience. Anybody who remembers the 1992 general election will recall how totally wrong the pollsters were then.

Also adding to the view that October is not on is from the Andrew Marr interview with Brown on BBC1 this morning. A lot is being read into Brown comment about the “return of the house” next month. That does not sound like the planning of a man who, we are being led to believe, will spend most of October fighting a general election campaign.

Still the Betfair price on next month being a general election month goes on. The latest Betfair price on a 2007 poll is just over 2-1. I’m not wasting my money.

UPDATE Apparently when Balls spoke in the way he did he wasn’t closing down the election option – see Ben Brogan. I think that Brown’s team is in danger of making a real meal over this which doesn’t reflect well.

Mike Smithson