Chris

Yes. That's because people vote with their gut feelings rather than with their heads and whether they feel wealthy or not plays an enormous part in that.

Margaret Thatcher won three elections, remember. Despite the endless BBC-sponsored anti-Tory barrage by the likes of Ben Elton throughout the 1980s, enough people generally felt that she was taking the country in the right direction to keep voting her back in.

In 2015, if people feel that things are picking up and they are getting better off, Dave stands a very good chance of winning an outright majority and bringing us a 100% Tory government.

Let's not forget that Ed Millipede's comments were first of all given to a sycophantic hack from a friendly lefty newspaper, and secondly what else was he supposed to say? He can't exactly go round predicting that he isn't going to win in 2015, can he?

Deep down he's not so stupid as to think the election will be about anything other than the economy. But his interview this weekend is not really about winning the 2015 election. It's about applying constant pressure on the Coalition in the hope of forcing it to break up earlier than 2015. Ed's only real chance of winning the next election lies in forcing that election to take place a lot sooner, while the economy is still in intensive care.