Mrs C and I were enjoying a well-earned cup of tea yesterday, on a damp and disappointingly chilly May afternoon, when the bland afternoon TV coverage switched to a damp and chilly Downing Street where a podium had been put up outside Number 10. Political correspondents spoke of rumours about an election. We watched, fascinated, as the podium was moved a bit and the rain continued to lash down.
With little warning, the door was opened and the Prime Minister emerged to tell us that he had had a chat with Charlieboy and Parliament was to be dissolved for an election on 4 July. He then tried to explain what a great bloke he was, and how great everything the government had done had been and why we should all vote for him. Unfortunately our attention was diverted to the wet patches running down his jacket and to the discordant sound of a pop song played loudly just outside the gates to Downing Street (My sources later informed me that this was D:Ream's "Things Can Only Get Better", the anthem to Labour's 1997 landslide).
This move has certainly taken everyone by surprise. Summer elections are unusual. Sunak was expected to try to big things up at the party conference in the autumn, perhaps on the back of a tax cut, perhaps after sending the first few hapless migrants to Rwanda. There are rumours that Tory MPs were poised for a no-confidence vote and he decided to strike first. Others suggest that this has been to get a jump on Reform who have been nibbling at the traditional Conservative vote. Still others opined that, the rate of inflation having fallen to about 2.5%, this is a golden opportunity to boast about sound economic management (while keeping very quiet indeed about the last few years).
This will be the first election I will witness from my new constituency, having moved from Uxbridge and South Ruislip (seat of part-time strolling PM B Johnson) to the rural surroundings of Stratford on Avon, seat of the retiring ex-chancellor Nadim Zahawi, who featured (anonymously) in these columns not so long ago. I suspect that there will be little in the way of canvassing around here but we will see.
The timing of this election is not good news for the many post office managers, wrongly accused of fraud by a conspiracy of the directors of the Post Office and of software supplier Fujitsu; the news about the hearings will now be downgraded. And only in the last couple of days has the PM apologised for the long running NHS infected blood scandal, and promised compensation to the victims. Will this promise be quietly shelved on the grounds that it is now a matter for the new government?
One might also wonder if the PM is hoping for a bounce should England or Scotland do well in the Euro Football Championships - if either survive to election day then they will be in the quarter-finals, and this would surely be a huge boost to the feel-good factor. Will Harry win it for Rishi?
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