What if... Gordon had fought a General Election?

When the politicial obituaries are written for Gordon Brown (and hopefully that won't be too far away, given the reaction to the Glasgow by-election) I think they will point to one event that damaged Brown more than any other and started his freefall into political oblivion. Yep, I'm talking about the election that never was. It destroyed the (utterly false) impression that Brown had the courage of his convictions and was politically canny. It showed Brown in his true light - a cowardly little misanthrophe too afraid to fight for what he believed in.

But what if Brown had called that election? Where would we be now?

Well, for a start, there would be another 4 years of Labour government, rather than 18 months. Brown would have won that election; possibly with a diminished majority, but he would have won it nonetheless.

And rather than having Cameron as leader, I now think that David Davis would be heading up the Tories. Cameron's pitch for the Tory leadership was (and still is) based purely on him bringing the perception of success to the Conservatives. There is no policy to get behind with Cameron, no sense of political belief. He represents the pragmatic nature of the Tories - he makes them more popular, so they'll go with him. And had he lost that ability to make them popular, then he would have been replaced. Davis, campaigning on being a tougher fighter and more instinctively Conservative than Cameron, would have been that replacement.

But what would be the position of the Labour party right now? How would they be faring in the polls? I'm guessing pretty much where they are now. All of the problems encountered by Gordon's government (the loss of data discs, the corruption scandals, Northern Rock etc) would still have happened. And those problems would still have the same impact on Labour's popularity.

The problems that are consuming Labour at the moment were not caused by the election that never was. That aborted election was not the cause, but rather a symptom of the affliction that is crippling the Labour party. And that affliction is, at heart, down to their choice of leader.

That's the problem with the Labour party at the moment: Gordon Brown.

And the fact that he's shit.