Brown refuses to rule out calling an election this week

Interviewed on Sunday AM, Gordon Brown repeatedly refused to rule out an October poll.  He even refused to rule out calling an election this week.

Non-verbatim highlights:

• He wouldn’t rule out autumn election [Given the speculation he has permitted Brown really risks becoming diminished, political and ‘chicken’ if he doesn’t now go to the country.]
• He said that he wouldn’t discuss election-timing – he was focusing on governing – including the crises he has faced on terrorism, Foot and Mouth, flooding and Northern Rock.
• The choice at the next election would be between a Labour Government committed to stability and growth and a Tory party locked into the economics of 1992 – when David Cameron stood alongside Norman Lamont on Black Wednesday.
• He wanted to create an NHS that was "personal" to all patients.
• He evaded questions on when he first knew about Northern Rock.
• Mervyn King – like Eddie George – is a brilliant Governor.  The system created in 1997 has delivered stability and an end to stop-and-go.
• What the Tories call the debt problem is actually a huge increase in the number of people who have bought their own homes.  On average people are paying a lower proportion of their incomes on repayments today than in the early 1990s.
• David Cameron was Norman Lamont’s failed economic adviser.  Yawn. Matthew Parris has written about Brown’s misleading spin on this.
• Asked who he was politically, he answered that he was the son of a church minister who believed in hard work, family and respect for others.  The NHS summed up his political values.
• Told that the SNP planned party election broadcasts featuring his Downing Street photo opportunity with Margaret Thatcher, he replied that he invited Margaret Thatcher to Downing Street because it was a courteous thing to do.  Although she had caused too much unemployment, she did recognise the need for change when she was PM and she is a conviction politician.
• Britain has a system of "managed migration" – a points-based system based on the Australian system.  If you come to this country you need to learn our language and understand our culture.  [Brown repeatedly declined to answer Andrew Marr’s straight question on whether there was too much immigration].