Lib Dems prepare for snap election

THE Liberal Democrats are gripped by General Election fever. They think Gordon Brown will cut and run if he becomes Prime Minister, seeking his own mandate after succeeding Tony Blair.

Party campaign chairman Ed Davey is telling his troops to turn their fire on Brown's legacy as chancellor, aiming a "no hiding place" arrow straight at his heart.

The Lib Dems are always prepared. They look at constituencies where there is a MP aged 65 and over and prepare by-election strategies. The party is quite the nastiest of the big three when it comes to campaigning and on occasions, they have been caught out gleefully celebrating the death of a rival MP just so they can get stuck into a campaign.

(Romsey was a good case in point - Charles Kennedy had to apologise to the family of the MP and his wife killed in a house fire for remarks made locally by Lib Dems. Nevertheless, the Lib Dems won the seat at the by-election and have clung on at the last two General Elections).

I'm not sure what grounds Mr Davey has for believing there will be a snap election within months of Tony Blair's departure  With the Tories ahead in the polls, it could be suicide for Gordon Brown to force an election. And it could well be that the Lib Dems lose a host of seats to the Tories in the south and east and to Labour in the north.

Nevertheless, Chris Rennard has been appointed the Lib Dems' General Election campaign committeee chairman. Where will they be hoping to win in the East? They are eternally optimistic about gaining Watford from Labour, have Norwich South, Norfolk South, and Suffolk South in their sights, and hope to push Labour into third place in Bury St Edmunds.

But if they are really serious, how about choosing some candidates? If they're so certain there will be an early election - and don't forget it need not be held until May 2010 - why aren't their candidates in place?

Tory backbencher John Redwood thinks his party should step up its attacks on Brown. "I'm not complacent on the economy in the way that Gordon Brown is," the tax-cutting right winger will say in a GMTV interview to be broadcast on Sunday.

""We don't have a very efficient public sector, which is absorbing more money and not delivering what people want. The poor performance of the UK economy has been to some extent masked by inviting in a lot of new people who are taking difficult jobs for modest wages."

If Redwood had his way, the Tories would go into the election promising income tax reductions which would curtail investment in public sector - a vote losing combination which would put the Conservatives in opposition for ever.

Incidentally, an October election would entail the cancellation of the party conferences and that means there'll be no need to go to dreadful Blackpool next October. Come on Gordon!