1979 v 2009

Having managed to avoid most of yesterday's Thatcher Fest(for those who missed it, it was the 30th anniversary of her first election victory),I did read Mike Smithson who has

been trying to think of the lessons that might help us to predict the next general election

There are some similarities,notably an unelected Labour Prime Minister going to the country for the first time and seemingly waiting until the last possible moment.

The common themes are very marked. A possibility of the return of the Tory government; a Labour party that had some massive challenges on the economy to face and a big squeeze on the Liberals.

But perhaps more importantly

On a wider issue there’s little doubt that the outgoing Labour PM, Jim Callaghan, was much more popular than Gordon Brown is today. Amazingly given the final outcome he seemed to hold big polling leads on the “who would be best PM”. Brown used to have that in his favour but no longer