THE RACE BEGINS

GORDON Brown has officially announced that the general election will take place on May 6. Standing on the steps of Downing Street with his cabinet ministers behind him, Gordon Brown set out his mandate for election. The message Brown wants to take to the country is that “Britain is on the road to recovery and nothing we do should put that recovery at risk” hinting at the negative effect Conservatives policies could have on the economy.

It is clear that the economy is to play a big part of the election campaign as the major parties tussle with each other over cuts and taxes. The Lib Dems will be projecting Vince Cable, their highly regarded Treasury spokesmen as one of their great selling points. Whereas the Conservatives promise to fight for the “great ignored” getting rid of proposed increase to National Insurance contributions among other measures. It seems as though the issue of class will also have a big part to play in the campaign. Gordon stated, “I come from an ordinary middle class family” pointing out how ‘well connected’ he is to the voter compared to Eton schooled Cameron.

The 2010 election is set to be a tough fight. With mixed polls, there is certainly no clear-cut winner so far. In his speech, Brown highlighted, “I am not a team of one I am one of a team” – showing strength of his well-known Cabinet compared to David Cameron’s unknowns. But Cameron (who if elected would be the youngest serving Prime Minister) is playing up the idea of a “fresh start” and “real choice” as he stated in a speech to party faithful earlier this morning. Cameron will be taking his vision of “the modern conservative option” to the country with plans for a smaller government and ‘Big Society”. In his speech today Nick Clegg said that Gordon Browns’ days were numbered reinforcing that this election was not just a “two horse race”.

The election will be like none before it. With three – US styled – leadership debates and the possibility of the first hung Parliament for at least 30 years it is sure to be very dramatic.