Candidates set out on their campaign trail

As the three star runners in the general election race set off to criss-cross the country for the next 30 days, all eyes were on them to follow their every move, find reason in their smallest gestures and words and, ultimately, turn this into an early prediction for an outcome that looks anything but predictable.

Gordon Brown, Labour Prime Minister since June 2007, used his election day announcement to ask the British people “for a clear and straightforward mandate to continue the urgent and hard work of securing the recovery, building our industry for the future and creating a million skilled jobs for the next five years”. A confident message from a leader whose team (the full cabinet was gathered outside his residence) is described by the opposition as being exhausted and out of clues in the country’s financial recovery battle.

It is then not surprising that Mr. Brown’s main contender, Tory MP David Cameron, is putting on a lively image of a powerful leader. Journalists gathered outside Mr Cameron’s residence early this morning were at hand to see him rise to an early day and have an invigorating run. Later on, just across the Thames from the Parliament, Cameron pulled no punches in a speech that got up front and personal with Brown’s policies and future plans.

Liberal-democrat Nick Clegg took the predictable stance of putting the two main parties together, in an attempt to polarize the potentially undecided voters against disappointments past and present with the cabinets of the past decades, outlining their making mistakes “over and over again”.

The focus will no doubt be on the marginal seats this campaign. The libdems accompanied their leader to Watford, currently a labour constituency, while Gordon Brown travelled to several Kent seats, in a defensive stance trying to hold on to some of the key areas currently in his party’s hand. David Cameron covered some ground, with visits in Birmingham and Leeds that’s iconic of the amount of ground the Tories must cover to earn the 116 seats needed for a Parliamentary majority.

photo: WEF