May 6 Election

Officially revealing what British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called the "least well-kept secret of recent years", he announced that the U.K. general election will be held on Thursday, May 6.

The public announcement followed the formality of Brown going to Buckingham Palace to ask Queen Elizabeth II to dissolve Parliament and schedule the election, which she, of course, did. Formally, that is her call to make, but the precedent has long since been established that monarchs do not interfere in the making of such political decisions. This was the 15th time during her 58-year reign that the Queen has gone through that ritual. Parliament will be dissolved on April 12, and is scheduled to reconvene on May 18.

The BBC report to which I linked above, describes polls giving the Conservative Party a lead ranging from four to 10 percentage points.

I provided more background on the election here and here.