That sounds very positive. The thing about councils being notified seem slightly misleading though - councils won't know when the general election is going to be any more than the rest of us. We'll all only know for sure when Gordon calls it. I believe the civil service tends to encourage councils to be prepared for certain dates - this happened with the general election that never was in 2007. But they don't have any inside knowledge. If Brown goes the polls before local election day in 2010, it's likely to take councils by surprise...