Woke up to very pleasing news this morning – a new Ipsos MORI poll shows the Tory lead has dropped by 6% to 37%, only 6 points ahead of Labour on 31%. This is most pleasing. Were these figures applied nationally at the next election, the Observer calculates, the Torys – whilst becoming the largest party in the House – would be deprived of an absolute majority by around some 35 seats. A hung parliament is a cheering prospect for those among us who’ve feared the worst over the last year or so. The fight, it would seem, is still on.

Enough column inches have already been generated over this. Indeed, I’ve spent the best part of the day reading them. There’s very little extra I can add to the story other than a personal slant – It is heartening, truely heartening. A note of caution perhaps, this is after all only a one off poll thus far, we need another to make it a trend, but I’m confident we can make it. Seeing the numbers, and the possibilities they invoked reminded of that wonderful West Wing scene [SPOILER ALERT]:

The S7 one, where Santos gets put into the lead after the nuclear incident, and where Josh and Donna FINALLY get it on . Nothing quite so dramatic for myself today unfortunately, but still, it was a quite happy moment.

[SPOILER ENDS]

So now I’m actually quite looking forward to election ‘10 – It’s going to be a very close one I’m reckoning, with the result on a knife edge until the very small hours. Unfortunate then that I should be based in GMT+12 until July. Still, I imagine there’ll be some sort of knee’s up (one can still drink from 12pm-6pm right?). Part of me wishes I could be with my comrades back at BULS when it happens, or that I could be more active in the campaign. Looks like my current role shall be restricted to keeping spirits raised from the comfort of the blogosphere/twitosphere.

This in itself could be useful though. Morale in the party has most likely dropped in the last year. If today’s poll (even if it becomes a one off) tells us anything, it’s that there’s still potentially all to play for. Bring it Dave.