The Phoney Election

So the Monday arrives that everyone had been waiting for for some time... and it turns out to be yet another false start. As everyone knows by now, the election is likely to be called tomorrow, and lots of political reporters seem to be telling everyone that it will be a "sombre" start to the campaign because of the Pope's death.

I think this is going a bit too far. What does it matter if Blair goes on the attack tearing chunks out of Michael Howard tomorrow? The Pope's hardly in a condition to be offended or condemn Blair to Hell. It's going to happen anyway next week, so why wait for an arbitrary length of time to determine when it will be safe to start the offensive again? Why will it be inappropriate to insult each other on one day, and then the next it's OK again?

Seems a bit stupid, and it likely means the proper campaigning is probably not even going to begin when the election is called now, which will make this one of the shortest campaigns for some time.

I'm still hoping that the Royal wedding is going to be on the same day as the Pope's funeral as we could do with getting all of this over in one fell swoop. If they're on different days, it means the politicians will continue to tell us that it's "inappropriate" for them to campaign that day, which suits Tony Blair down to the ground. After all, while the campaigns are suspended, the polls will not be moving an inch.

Now then... I wonder how Blair is going to announce it tomorrow. Remember last time it was in a school where, co-incidentally, the entire media just happened to be invited? It has to look low-key tomorrow... and I'm sure the Blair spinmeisters have spent hours agonising over the right place to announce it for electoral bonuses. It will be interesting to see how it plays out.