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What If Gordon Brown Had Called A General Election In June 2007?
Would our trajectory have turned out differently?
History is full of so many what ifs.
And with ‘what ifs’ we are left imagining how things might have turned out, had these imagined events actually taken place.
A prime example is Winston Churchill.
It is said that when Neville Chamberlain was resigning, he called Churchill and Lord Halifax into a room informing them of his plans. It is said that had Halifax not visited the dentist, thereby restricting his ability to speak, Britain might have had a Prime Minister who would have appeased Hitler as opposed to fighting to the death.
The subject, however, of this article is Gordon Brown.
It is June 2007.
Tony Blair has been Prime Minister for well over a decade.
Based on the terms of agreement between him and his long term Chancellor (some might say long suffering), Blair was meant to step aside after six years.
The partnership of Blair and Brown in the 80s and 90s was at the heart of the new labour project.
When both men were elected to parliament in 1983, it was Brown who was the senior partner; it was he who taught Blair how to give rousing speeches and gave…