Campaigning begins as Brown names election date

Campaigning begins as Brown names election date

Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, has announced the date of the country's general election as May 6.

Opinion polls suggest Brown's ruling Labour Party is trailing the opposition Conservative Party.

Follow the story as it develops here. 

Update | 18GMT: Every politician we've spoken to admits a big problem may be engaging the public in this election.

The parliament that draws to a close on Monday will be remembered for the expenses scandals and the claims for toilet brushes and moat cleaning and duck houses.

People are fed up with politics and politicians. And so despite this being billed as the most important election in a generation, it might also produce the lowest turnout in 60 years.

I remember when I was young going with my grandfather to cast his vote. I asked him why he did it. He told me many people never get their chance to have their voices heard in free and fair elections.

And he told me of those who campaigned to ensure ordinary people had the vote. "But," he said, "if you don't vote you can't complain about the result".

So maybe this election will surprise us all.

Update | 17GMT: So this is how the next four weeks will pan out in the UK election campaign:

Thursday, April 8. Effectively parliament's last working day. Could be a long one too with a last minute scramble to push through legislation.

Monday, April 12. Parliament is officially dissolved.  All seats become vacant although government ministers stay on position until the next government is formed.

Thursday, April 15. Britain's first televised leader's debate. The theme will be domestic affairs.

Tuesday, April 20. Nomination papers to stand for election must be lodged by 4pm (UK time) today.

Thursday, April 22. Second leaders debate on foreign affairs.

Thursday, April 29. Third debate on the economy.

Thursday, May 6. Polling day

Friday, May 7. Majority of results announced. If any party fails to win a majority of seats, talks will start to form a coalition government.

Update | 15GMT: I bump into an old friend of mine, a veteran political reporter who has covered many UK general elections. He feels there's a lack of excitement today.

"Everyone knew it was coming, there's no shock", he says. But even he won't hazard a guess at the outcome. "The debates could make a difference".

For the first time the leaders of the three main parties will be involved in live TV debates. There'll be three, the first on April 15.

It's a big move for British politics, a nod towards the US which has had them for more than 40 years.

And here's where I have my concern. Every election in the US we're told the debates are "game changers," but then they very rarely are.

John F Kennedy did well because he looked better on screen, but big moments, important moments, vote-changing moments, have been few and far between.

And in the UK - I suspect we'll see the same. We'll have the hype, the expectation and perhaps the same sense of anti-climax when no-one falls over, no-one forgets the agreed line, no-one produces a startling revelation.

The leaders' debates could be signifcant, or they may just lock in the votes already heading their way.

Update | 13GMT: So the party leaders are already off on the campaign trail. For months, the strategists have been working on what they'll do, how they'll do it, and what message they'll hammer home.

Cameron is off to Birmingham - about 150km north of London. He went there after meeting all his party's would-be MPs and will spend the day there before moving on to deliver a big set piece speech in the northern city of Leeds tonight.

Brown is planning to meet people one on one. He'll tour factories, offices and canteens to talk to voters trying to get a mandate for five more years. 

And Nick Clegg, the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Britain's third party, is off to Watford on the edge of London, to a seat where all three parties have a chance of winning. 

One man watching all that's been unfolding tells me he has a question for any politician looking for his vote.

"I'm going to ask, where have you been since the last election?" he says.

Update | 12GMT: The heavy hitters are out. Each party is now wheeling their big names out in front of the British TV cameras, putting their message in front of the voters.

I grab a quick word with Alan Johnson, the home secretary (interior minister).  He thinks there's a clear choice in the election between the two main parties.  I ask if voters will refuse to vote because of the political scandals of the past few years. There are predictions there'll be a low turnout. 

He tells me:

"You don't know until an election starts how voters will react.  Maybe people will be more determined to turn out and vote because of the scandals.  This will be a different election from recent years.  This will be much more vital, going back to the old style of public debate election."

There's still the feeling that in all the debates, the discussions of vision and policy, things could still get personal and nasty.

Update | 11GMT: So what do the Conservatives need to do to win?

In the UK, general elections are held on a first past-the-post basis, which means the person polling the most amount of votes in any constituency is elected MP.  They need to win 117 more seats than they hold at the moment to get a majority of one. 

There will be 650 seats in the next parliament (four more than this one because of boundary changes and the creation of new constituencies ) and so 326 is the magic number.

Marginal constituencies then hold the key, so even though the electorate is in the millions, 100,000 voters might hold the key to the final result.  And that explains why the Conservatives have ploughed a record 25 million dollars into campaigning in those areas, and why so much of their election resources will be aimed there.

Update | 10GMT: And we're off.  Gordon Brown surrounded by his senior ministers has told us what we all expected - Britain will go to the polls on May 6th.

The prime minister has made his appeal to the voters, laying out the message he will carry "across the country".  He says the UK is in recovery and changing government now would put that at risk.

Just a short distance away David Cameron made his pitch for change, saying this was an election for "the ignored" in UK , invoking a successful theme from the Obama election.

So the battle lines are drawn.

Update | 9GMT: There is a process to follow here.  As Head of State, the Queen must give her assent to the dissolution of parliament.  It's a formality, but one which has to be observed. 

Parliament will be dissolved on Monday.  This allows essentially three working days to push through any essential legislation which can be agreed by all the main parties.

When parlaiment is dissolved, all 650 seats become vacant.  Senior ministers stay in place, acting essentially as caretaker heads of department until the election.

The meeting with the Queen won't take long but it marks the official start of the four week election campaign.

Update | 8GMT: So all the senior government ministers have arrived at Downing Street for the cabinet meeting. This is their chance to sign off on the government's manifesto for the election campaign.  It gives Gordon Brown the chance to rally his big hitters and send them off to fight the election.

Like Bill Clinton famously said about his campaign - this is "all about the economy stupid".  Britain has a huge deficit and how to deal with it will be one of the big dividing lines between the two main parties.  Their polices on taxation and funding public services will come under close scrutiny. 

And then there is the character issue.  Who is right to leader Britain.  Gordon Brown will say this isn't the time for "inexperienced" leaders while the Conservatives' David Cameron will talk about change - a lot.

But with the latest opinion poll giving the Conservatives just a four point leader over Labour this is going to be a difficult, tight and some would argue, a nasty campaign.

Update | 7GMT: There is a growing media presence outside Westminster as broadcasters, newspapers and websites prepare to cover what could be the most exciting and close fought election in more than 20 years.

But while the excitement among the journalists is obvious, there could be a problem engaging an electorate which is fed up with politicans and politics.

The expenses scandal and other issues over MPs behaviour could mean we see the lowest turnout ever at a UK general election.

Update | 6GMT: The worst kept secret in British politics will be confirmed in just a few hours - the UK general election will be held on May 6th.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will hold a meeting of his senior ministers just after 9am UK time (8GMT) and then take the short drive to Buckingham Palace to ask Queen Elizabeth, as head of state, to dissolve parliament.

That will happen officially next Monday, to give MPs the chance to rush through any last minute legislation.

This will be an election fought on two fronts. First there are the obvious issues of Britain's huge debt, taxation and public services.

Then there is the much more political issue of who people trust to run the country. Gordon Brown will talk about being in control, leadership and not letting other parties put an economic recovery at risk.

The main opposition party, the Conservatives will, in a nod to Barack Obama's successful campaign, talk about working for "the ignored" in society; ordinary people who work hard, pay their taxes and don't break the law. Leader, David Cameron will talk about change and renewal.

Opinion polls suggest that this will be an incredibly tight election. And after four weeks of campaigning, the result still might not be clear come May 7th, the day after the election.