READY TO GO

by RAY FLEMING
IT would be naive to suppose that the opinion polls which Gordon Brown will be studying today before making his decision on an early election are those which the rest of us can look through in the newspapers. Rather, he will be discussing with his closest aides private polls which analyse trends in different types of constituencies, in particular those which were won or lost at the last election by a tiny margin of votes. Interpreting the feed-back from such specialised polling is a highly skilled business and both Labour and the Conservatives devote a great deal of time and money to it. Last Wednesday the Guardian newspaper published a detailed plan of the Conservative election war room with information down to the occupant of even the tiniest of rooms. It provided a fascinating insight into the size of the Conservative central team, some 150 staff in all. But the most interesting thing was what it revealed about the influence of Lord Ashcroft, the generous party funder, who has more staff reporting directly to him in his own office than David Cameron and George Osborne have in their shared office. Lord Ashcroft's speciality is the aforementioned marginal constituencies and each member of his staff will be engaged in supporting the Conservative effort in the most important ones with cash and on-the-spot assistance. It's an impressive operation but one that might just have too many chiefs with differing views on crisis-handling. The Conservatives have said they are ready for an election and it seems that they are. Is Labour, too?