Gavin Yates (Edinburgh, GYMedia): 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 - and Brown will be more than aware of what happened 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 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 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.
