Is this part of the election countdown?

Most of the focus of Brown’s Iraq visit has been on it all being a smart diversionary tactic to draw attention away from the Tory conference in Blackpool.

Well that might partially be the case but could it also be a clearing of the decks of negative Labour issues ahead of an early general election?

A key group of voters that Labour strategists are concerned about are those who switched to the Lib Dems in 2005 because of Iraq. Would a “drawing of a line under the issue” make it easier for them to come back?

I don’t know but my close Labour source who has been reliable in the past suggests that November 1st has been fixed and Basra is part of Gord’s plan.

It might be but Brown is not going to risk all until he’s seen some post-Blackpool polling numbers.

Mike Smithson