People forget that this is a very strange election to fight, unlike previous elections, we knew the date of this one years ago.

It's not like getting a gut feeling of when the next election will be called and having party leaders stand on the rostrum and tell the faithful to "go back to your constituencies and prepare for government." (How did that go again Mr Steel?).

I believe this election will be won on the doorstep, Labour are mobilising troops already. They have seen the impact that had on UPRIK support and they know that's the only way to get to those who don't watch Newsnight or listen to Radio 4

I think a significant factor in the election will be how well the UK and France's economies are performing at the time of the election and how well they have performed since their last election. Its not often that there is such an obvious proxy available as to how the opposition's policies would have worked.

Knowing the date makes it a damn sight easier. That's what makes Miliband's speech so much worse. Doorstepping has always been most effective in getting the core vote out.

No opposition has ever won a general election when it has had fewer councillors than the incumbent, and to have just a 5 point lead in conference week is nothing more than statistical margin of error.

Labour will lose hugely over the West Lothian question, it's pathetic efforts to explain it away will only fool it's absolute hard core. The Tories & UKIP will hammer them over it. Even the Lib Dems will stick the boot in.

The Lib Dems will be too busy working out how to fund the lost deposits in 2015.

In the same way that labour paid the price for bailing out the banks and overspending, people will remember the sellout of May 2010 and they'll be wiped out.

Would be interesting to know what proportion of the Lib Dem vote was students & how badly it will actually hit them. Sure sign will be if Clegg switches seats away from Sheffield Hallam. Wonder how much of a role the NUS wil play on the campaign trail.

Having had a taste of power, they will flog their apparent achievements to death & say it's better to vote for them rather than switch back to a labour party that created the mess they are 'helping' to sort.

Lynton Crosby will be vital to the Tories selling themselves & I'll bet Cameron's speech writers are prepping something that will destroy Miliband on the back of his awful performance.

The Lib Dems will see their total vote slashed. But they are very resilient when it comes to retaining seats. Once they've won a seat they dont give it up easily. Any party that can retain a seat following the imprisonment of a cabinet minister in the depths of a double dip recession shouldn't be written off too easily.

Clegg will definitely be targeted. But he has a substantial majority and Labour came a poor 3rd. Perhaps the students will tactically vote Tory?

They'll have their hands full taking on the idiot Farage and trying to hang on to their own core voters.

They seem to be struggling to hang on to their own MPs at the moment

rlBrooks Newmark, Minister for [iCivil Society[/i (LOL) resignsrl

Paisley pajamas FFS! WTF wears paisley pajamas?

Call me Dave's conference speech should be a real doosie

To forget a couple of parts of a speech may be careless but to lose two MPs and a minister in less than a month is unforgivable

Good speech or not, Miliband will be Prime Minister in seven and a bit months time. Nothing can stop Labour winning now, although the media will give it their best shot.

I think the outcome of next election will be determined by how well Miliband performs. Cameron will probably be as uninspiring as last time, nobody will be wanting to say that they agree with Nick. Farage will go into meltdown at some stage. Miliband is the unknown quantity in a general election campaign.

If he merely reinforces his current image Labour's lead will probably ebb away as it did under Kinnock. But he might surprise people and have a strong campaign, just as Major did in '92.

In the pre-1992 polling Kinnock was propped up by Tories flirting with the idea of voting Labour. In the end they didn't and he lost. As well as that his lead wasn't that big anyway. Polls back then were unweighted and they exaggerated Labour's lead. There was no marginal polling either, and it is this that really counts.

Miliband's lead is far less vulnerable as the polls are weighted, he has a big lead in the marginal and he is being propped up by 2m Lib Dem voters from 2010. Unless most of them switch back he wins, irrespective of the damage UKIP do the Tories.

if we get another Labour government we are s4afted.

Yes because Gordon Brown single-handedly caused the worldwide financial meltdown in 2008.

There'll be far fewer people "shafted" by a Labour government than there will be by a tory one

selling National Gold Reserves at the bottom of the market, LABOUR
setting an unaffordable National Minimum Wage = LABOUR
ripping off companies with Corporation Tax = LABOUR
generally penalising success to pay for people being workshy = LABOUR

sorry, but facts are facts, even (dick"Ed"icon_wink.gif Milliband can't even trot out a mascot that he's properly researched.

but no matter, this is RLFans, not the real world, facts are as unwelcome as they are ignored.

Labour will not intentionally shaft as many people as the Tories