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Gordon Brown has finally got the fight he wanted... the only question is whether voters will bother to watch.
Today's Queen's Speech is due to contain some 15 Bills, 12 of them brand new, which is an impossibly large workload for the few fag-end weeks before an election.
At its heart is a strategy that the Prime Minister mapped out a few weeks ago. He told ministers he wanted “a big choice election”, where voters would be drawn into a debate about Labour plans versus the Conservative manifesto and be forced to vote for one.
The alternative would be to let 6 May become a referendum on Mr Brown's personality and his recent performance . . . and ministers knew how severe that would be.
So, the PM would like you to consider his list of crowd-pleasing measures as a post-dated cheque of Labour's good intentions for the elusive fourth term.
David Cameron's retort that it is “shameful and short-termist” is intended to make us recall that Labour has held power for 12 years and should be judged on its record.
All of the measures have an electioneering feel. The flagship Bill to give free personal care to 400,000 elderly people targets the growing bloc of elderly voters. Yet it does beg questions about how the recipients can be chosen fairly.
The Bill to halve the deficit in four years is Mr Brown's reply to the charge he has let borrowing run away. It is purely symbolic.
Cracking down on bankers and City crimes is a heavyweight Bill that will put the Opposition on the spot. But will it — or even the major Bills covering education and health — actually influence voters?
Mr Brown hoped the last Queen's Speech would change his luck and it failed. Most people have probably made up their minds — and most likely over the expenses scandals.
