When will the GE be held?

I don’t think even the Prime Minster knows!

Last night after tweeting that Chris Bryant has let it slip that the General Election will be held on May 6, within minutes I watched my TweetDeck light up like a Christmas tree with more re-tweets and re-re-tweets. I suddenly felt; they (the PM and Labour) must be enjoying this so much and we are helping them.

It seems every couple of weeks no matter what else is going on in the world or the country, without fail a new ‘possible’ date is thrown at us. Granted last night’s announcement was a ‘slip of the tongue’ but it could also have been a deliberate slip!? Guaranteed in a couple of weeks, just when this election date issue begins to die down, a different date will get thrown at us and take center stage for a further couple of weeks before another date takes over and so on until the election is finally called.

So lets look at the facts as they are; this current parliament expires at midnight on May 10 of this year, another fact – the lasted possible date for an election is June 3 – these are the facts but we still allow ourselves to get all worked up on when is he going to call the election!?

A bigger fact, Labour is strapped for cash, they have not selected all their seats and their activists are thin on the ground. Plus most sitting Labour MPs are waiting to find out and/or decide whether they will stand again or not – some will decide for them selves and some will have it decided for them – but nonetheless the process could take weeks to finalize.

The logical thing will be to let this parliament expire and have the election on May 6 with the local elections it will give Mr. Brown the longest possible time as PM and it is also economical – add to that the possibility of a good turnout having both elections on the same day, but I am sure in a couple of weeks from now we will be back again wondering when!