Brown confirms budget date and frames election debate

Gordon Brown’s just told us the Budget is in 2 weeks time – Alistair Darling will later on confirm that 24th March is the date.

The Treasury had been getting a bit queasy at orders from No. 10 not to release the date earlier.

Gordon Brown wants to work every advantage from what tools of surprise he has in the run up to the election, keeping the Opposition on their toes and expending their energy unnecessarily.

But now the timetable of the election seems pretty clear.

Parliament will be dissolved on 12 April and the manifesto launches and first leaders’ debate (Thursday 15th April – ITV from Manchester) will have to be squeezed into that week.

In his speech today on the economy, Gordon Brown is rehearsing lines for those debates … emphasising the need for “strength” at times of “fragility” and many other focus group tested terms. 

He just went off the released script at the end of the speech: “What you see is what you get” and “character is the courage to set out your mission and stick to it.” 

He said at the end (as scripted, this bit): “I will not let you down.” No. 10’s latest innovation in its focus groups has been to talk not to waverers or undecideds but to people who have already switched to David Cameron.  

In a method learnt from the US, the Labour focus groups try to discover the snapping point at which these converts might swing back or start to doubt their new choice.