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# Could a snap election derail the SNP at Westminster?
- URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/could-a-snap-election-derail-the-snp-at-westminster/
- Published: 2007-08-02T16:08:02.000Z
- Updated: 2019-02-14T22:36:59.000Z
- Author: openDemocracy Supporters
- Tags: #en, #Migrated, #Import 2026-04-09 18:23

**Gavin Yates (Edinburgh,** [**GYMedia**](http://gymedia.wordpress.com/?ref=opendemocracy.net)**):** There has been much talk of Gordon Brown deciding that going to the country sooner rather than later is the way to go for the new PM. David Cameron is [in trouble with his own party](http://gymedia.wordpress.com/2007/08/01/did-cameron-pick-the-wrong-party/?ref=opendemocracy.net) \- and Brown will be more than aware of [what happened](http://www.newstatesman.com/200707190008?ref=opendemocracy.net) to the fairly newly installed former PM Jim Callaghan who should have gone in Autumn 1978 only to lose to Margaret Thatcher in May 1979.The [problem](http://www.theherald.co.uk/politics/news/display.var.1589613.0.0.php?ref=opendemocracy.net) for the SNP (and the Scottish Tories)is they are not ready for a UK General Election. Candidates haven't been picked and the SNP put a great deal of work into winning the Scottish elections in May.

Both parties have been put into election mode just in case Brown decides that an Autumn election is a suitable juncture to wander to the Palace but the smart money appears to suggest that it's more likely to be next Spring.

The BBC's redoubtable Scottish Political Editor [Brian Taylor](http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/briantaylor/2007/08/election%5Fspeculating.html?ref=opendemocracy.net) thinks that Brown has waitied too long to get power to potentially relinquish it so quickly. Maybe he's right - but Callaghan's folly will be playing on Brown's mind in the coming weeks.