The Lost Bottle That Will Blow Over

Much glee on Conservative blogs about GB calling the election off. They sense a major propaganda victory, and are revelling in it. I felt they were going overboard. I wondered whether how their joy contrasted with the reaction on the Left, so I went in search of commentary from Labour Party supporters.

It took me a while to find any. Many Labour blogs, regularly updated, are strangely lacking any critique on the biggest political story since Blair resigned. That it itself says something. When I eventually found a blog that was covering it (Labour Home) it was clear that there's a good deal of anger in the red section of the political spectrum. Brown himself escapes much of the criticism; blame generally is laid at the doors of "advisers". Words such as "embarrassing", "mess" and "shambles" do indeed abound. Beneath it though, there there are some who hold a more prosaic view that this, like many a past storm, will blow over, and I think they're right.

For those of us who find politics interesting, it's been gripping stuff for the last fortnight. But most people are not like us. They don't follow the events hour-by-hour, or even every day. Sure, some will think that Brown has bottled it and some of them may even let it affect their voting intentions - for a while. But when Brown does finally name the date, in 2009 or 2010, no one's going to remember or care about the election that never was.