I think there is a very good chance that Brown will call a General Election early in the New Year (January, February), off the back of this PBR. He will say something like "I told you in October 2007 that I wanted the opportunity to expose the weaknesses in Conservative economic thinking. Some of you did not believe me at the time, but I feel that my case is now clear for all to see in a way that perhaps it wasn't back then. We now face the worst economic crisis, around the world, for many decades, and we have a clear choice: the fiscal stimulus package we have proposed, which will get the economy back on track, or the Conservative path of cutting expenditure, no fiscal stimulus, passing by on the other side whilst ordinary people suffer - making the recession longer and deeper. There is a choice to be made, and I believe that it is right that the British people get to make that choice. So I have been to see Her Majesty..." I don't believe that Mandelson will let him wait until the real recession gives us power by default. It's nearly "good to go" time folks...