The folks in Downing Street will be busily choreographing Gordon Brown’s announcement for the election. There’s one unlikely venue they should consider: parliament. No prime minister has announced an election in the chamber for 75 years.
The history of all this is all laid out in a fascinating table in the Rallings and Thrasher book of British electoral facts.
In the early part of the century, the Commons was the favoured place to make these announcements. But the last prime minister to call an election from the dispatch box was Stanley Baldwin 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. The exception was Blair’s memorable 2001 announcement to a school, replete with halo and stained glass window.
The Commons has fallen terribly out of favour. The joke is that there is no better place to bury a news story. Given what a bad year the institution has had, perhaps Brown could break the mould? Imagine the theatre of a final joust with Cameron before heading off to see the Queen. A fun thought but unlikely to happen. Far too much could go wrong.
Jim Pickard
Kiran Stacey
