Let the games begin

So the Prime Minister has finally done the decent thing and put us all out of our misery with an election date.

November 8 was no surprise. But the timing of the announcement was. I can't recall if a prime minister has ever announced an election date on a Friday (someone will know). She certainly caught everyone on the hop, which I'm sure was her intention, including the media and National Party leader John Key, who has cut short a day in Christchurch to fly to Wellington for a press conference later this afternoon.

Clark has told us she has had this day free in her diary for some time, and it may well be that she always planned to go today. It is, however, more notice than we have received in previous years. In 2005, she gave seven weeks' notice and in 2002 six weeks.

Calling it a little earlier than expected has some advantages, whether it not it was dumb luck on her part. It draws a line under the Peters saga, and allows her a freer hand to sack him next week, if required after Brian Henry reappears before the privileges committee.

It focuses attention back on Labour and on National after weeks of attention on Peters and his tiny New Zealand First Party. This is as it should be. For too long Peters has dominated the headlines and the airwaves. I don't make any apology for this - his story was the major game in town - but now the election campaign can begin in earnest.

Clark told a presser today that Labour has major policy announcements up its sleeve in health, education, and housing. She also told us that a major plank of the campaign will be trust. To that extent it looks a little like being a reprise of the 2005 campaign, when Labour's "don't put it all at risk'' slogan helped prise swinging voters away from National.

This will be a tougher line to run this time around, given National has already taken on board many of Labour's most popular policies such as Kiwi Saver, Kiwi Bank, Working for Families, the Cullen super fund, 20 hours' free early childhood education and interest-free student loans.

But Clark's line is that National can't be trusted to keep any of them, and Labour will claim throughout the campaign that only a vote for Labour will ensure they are kept. It'll be up to Key to maintain that National won't put any of these policies at risk - a task made slightly tougher because of the secret tapes, which Labour will no doubt drag back out of the cupboard during the campaign.

All the indications are the campaign will again be about leadership, too, and that will suit John Key just fine. He believes he can foot it with Clark on the hustings, and time will tell whether he is justified. But he's up against the best in the business, and Clark has seen off three of his predecessors.

With eight weeks until polling day it's going to be a long campaign. Parliament won't be dissolved until October 3, indicating a five-week campaign proper. But essentially the rubber hits the road today. With Parliament in recess next week, expect all the party leaders to be on the defacto campaign trail. That will also take some of the focus off Peters and the privileges committee.

There's some comment on the blogs that the Labour-leaning Standard website leaked the election date this morning. The Standard wrote there was 58 days until the election. That's November 8. Personally I can't imagine the PM giving Clinton Smith the time of day. But there's a possibility someone in Labour tipped them off. Why else would the website launch its campaign hub today?

Whatever, by blindsiding everyone with an election announcement today, Clark has cleverly used the PM's perogative to name the day to her best advantage. It was one of the remaining cards up her sleeve. She held back the date until the end of her speech at lunchtime, knowing all the TV networks and radio stations were taking the press conference live. Essentially this afforded her a national platform to launch Labour's campaign.

National is furious about that, but unfortunately that is the breaks. Being in government is easier than being in opposition. Key must now deliver an impressive rebuttal before the six o'clock news tonight.

Let the games begin.