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TWENTY MINUTES with the monarch, and the die was cast. Queen Elizabeth flew by helicopter to Buckingam Palace from Windsor for the appointment with her prime minister, and the election campaign was formally on, parliament to be dissolved in a week. On May 6th, the people of the United Kingdom will at last have their say on a tired government, 13 years in power, and probably consign Prime Minister Gordon Brown and New Labour to history. “The most important election for a generation,” Tory leader David Cameron insisted, as every opposition leader, in every election has done for generations. But he may be right.

Yet there’s many a slip between cup and lip, and polls yesterday variously put Labour’s deficit on the Conservatives at between a declining four and a widening 10 percentage points – the first, a gap small enough to produce a Labour absolute majority, the latter, sufficient for the Tories to do likewise. In between lies the prospect of a hung parliament with the Liberal Democrats, kingmakers. Their leader, Nick Clegg, was quick to remind voters that it is no two-horse race, although coalition remains a dirty word to British voters, and the prospect may actually alienate his potential support.