One of the most interesting disclosures to have come from the Wikileaks documents is the highly probably abandonment of what seems to have been a plan by Gordon Brown to call a snap election in May 2009. This, was designed to capitalise on Labour's rise in the opinion polls after Gordon's well-received work at the G20 summit.
As was so often the case before the new fixed-term parliaments were introduced by the current coalition government, when the Prime Minister of the day could pick and choose the date of the next general election, it would be designed for maximum political advantage to the PM's own party. This is why it was such a bad system, consequently being rarely (and only coincidentally) to do with what was best for the country.
Anyway, Brown's plan was scuppered when the Damian McBride (one of the then PM's closest aides) smear campaign came to light, largely through the efforts of Guido. That reversed Labour's fortunes, and Gordon obviously couldn't go to the country at that time after all, as he would have been likely to lose! Can't have that now, can we?
If it had gone ahead, we'd quite likely have been subjected to another five years of Labour in government. As it was, we got away with just one year - and look at the damage Brown & Co did even in that relatively short time! Therefore, in a strange twist of fate, we can actually be grateful to McBride for being the agent of Labour's downfall in May 2010. The discovery of his actions stopped the 2009 election from happening at all, and the smell he left behind must have had a negative effect on Labour's polling the following year.
It has been a double-whammy for Brown and Labour, and we can be thankful for that!
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