I'M now convinced an election cannot be held on October 25 - for so long the rumoured date - and it is Gordon Brown himself who has made that impossible.

Before I explain, it means the Prime Minister is left with a choice of sending voters to the polls on a dark November night, or risking cries of "chicken" by waiting until next year. Everyone agrees it is a dilemma Mr Brown has yet to resolve, as he wrestles with his cautious nature.

However, for what it's worth, I think he will be making a mistake if, after deliberately stoking this election fever for so long, he now delays.

First, October 25 has been thought the most likely date because it is the last Thursday before the clocks go back and darkness descends before we all get home from work.

Speaking to delegates here in Bournemouth, it is clear they are nervous about getting Labour voters to the polling booth in the gloom of November 1, the autumn alternative.

So why not October 25? Well, to hold the election on that day, Mr Brown must call it no later than October 2, allowing 17 working days in between. The oft-quoted argument against is the Prime Minister's reluctance to wreck David Cameron's planned speech to the Tory conference the following day. However, there is another - that Mr Brown would have to visit the Queen while Parliament is in recess, because MPs do not return to Westminster until October 8.

How can he possibly square that with his promise, made within days of moving into No 10, to surrender to MPs the power to vote on calling an election?

An election after the clocks go back is not ideal, but waiting until May removes Mr Brown's best excuse for going to the country before 2009 - that he wants his own mandate to govern.

If he calls an election on October 9 for November 1, he will, of course, be accused of cashing in on Labour's poll lead - an astonishing 11 points, in the latest survey. But, with both the Tories and Liberal Democrats demanding an election, how much sting can that accusation have?

With the Rugby World Cup in the sporting headlines, it is tempting to see the Prime Minister as the Jonah Lomu of politics. Just as the powerful Kiwi winger crashed to glory through helpless English tacklers, everything thrown at Mr Brown - terror, flooding, foot-and-mouth, Northern Rock - just bounces off him.

It was never as good again for Jonah - and may not be for Gordon. It's time to go for the try line.

AT conference parties, everyone is delighted when Mr Brown turns up looking so happy and relaxed, but a couple of nagging issues remain.

The first is the Prime Minister's desperate need for some new jokes - if I hear the one again about the constituent who punched his predecessor as a Fife MP, I will scream.

Second, the unavoidable truth is that Mr Brown has a simply enormous head. I can't get the thought out of my own, rather smaller, head.

Interestingly, an apolitical friend of mine told me: "I prefer this PM to the old one. He's got a much bigger head - so he must be cleverer."