I think the clever chaps at the Financial Times Westminster blog have hit the nail right on the head after a recent post addressed the possibility of Gordon Brown making history and announcing the date of the next General Election in the House of Commons chamber.The author, Alex Barker, cites the new book by Rallings and Thrasher containing more than 250 pages of British electoral facts (yes it is exciting as it sounds) to reveal that no Prime Minister has announced an election in the chamber for 75 years.
This feature is somewhat peculiar since the Commons used to be the favoured place to make these announcements, but as the author says, the last Prime Minister to call an election from the dispatch box was Stanley Baldwin back in 1935.
“Most post-war prime ministers fired the starting gun with a press announcement or broadcast and the fashion since the 1990s has been a statement from Downing Street,” it reads, “the exception was Blair’s memorable 2001 announcement to a school, replete with halo and stained glass window.”
If the Election date is to the be the much-rumoured 6th May, then the announcement will have to be made very soon in order to have Parliament “dissolved” and the machinery for running an election to be initiated.
The table below made available by the House of Commons Library is an invaluable guide to the technicalities for election dates and clearly shows how you need 17 full working days between calling an election and polling day itself.
As you can see from the table (click here to enlarge image), Mr Brown can technically call a 6th May election as late as Monday 12th April - but he would surely want at least a few extra days of Parliamentary proceedings when he can pass the final stages of bills.
And so with that in mind and given what a bad year the institution has had scared by scandal after scandal, where better for Brown to add another achievement to his ‘legacy’ by making history and becoming the first PM in 75 years to announce the election in the House?
Keep an eye out for the agenda on Tuesday when “normal service” resumes after Easter…
