As expected, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced that Britain will go to the polls on May 6. The contest is likely to be a closely fought one with the economy dominating the campaign. The Conservatives, led by David Cameron, are leading in the opinion polls and have their best chance of ousting Labour after spending 13 years in opposition.
Even though a change in government is a real possibility, the mood in the country is not the same as it was in 1997 when people were euphoric about the charismatic Tony Blair and New Labour after 18 years of Conservative rule. The polls do not show a massive swing towards the Tories and many voters still have to make up their minds about Mr Cameron. Furthermore, the recession, the MPs' expenses scandal and the Afghan war have created a sense of scepticism among the electorate.
Mr Brown, who until recently was written off by political analysts and was considered to have absolutely no chance of winning an election, has now managed to narrow the gap between his party and the Conservatives, mainly due to his handling of the recession, which many voters give him credit for. In fact, the Prime Minister's main message to the electorate as he announced the date of the election was not to allow Britain's economic recovery to be wrecked by the Conservatives' planned spending cuts.
Mr Cameron, on the other hand, is seeking a mandate for change after a long spell of Labour rule and said the Tories were fighting "for the great ignored" and offered Britain a chance for "renewal". The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, is emphasising that the two main parties represent the politics of yesterday and that only by voting for his party would voters get something "new".
The economy and public services will almost certainly be the main themes of this electoral campaign. We can also expect a bitterly fought campaign - the Conservatives can't afford a fourth successive defeat while Labour believe they have a chance of winning, or at least preventing an overall victory for the Tories, due to Mr Brown's handling of the economic crisis.
The first week of the campaign was dominated by Labour's pledge to raise national insurance by one per cent for people earning over £20,000 from April 2011. This has proved to be a controversial proposal with the Conservatives saying this will be a "tax on jobs" that will kill the economic recovery and that they could instead save £12 billion by cutting waste in the public sector. Labour, on the other hand, are arguing that it would be these Tory cuts, combined with the £15 billion the government has already saved this year that would wreck the recovery and cause massive unemployment.
"You cannot effectively get £27 billion of savings in one year without laying thousands of people off and without causing losses of business and loss of jobs," Mr Brown said. However, the Conservatives' opposition to the planned national insurance increase was greatly boosted last week when over 80 major business leaders supported them over the issue and said Labour's plan would cause unemployment.
As the campaign progresses we can expect questions about how the deficit should best be cut without putting public services at risk to be constantly brought up. There will be accusations about planned tax increases, such as in the VAT rate, something which the Liberal Democrats has accused the two other parties of not ruling out.
British voters attach much importance to public services such as health and education, and Labour has invested a lot in these sectors since 1997, but it has to be said that an amount of over-spending has contributed to the country's huge deficit. So cuts have to be made, by whoever wins the election. The question is how far should the cuts go and how best to finance these cuts. Other issues expected to feature in this election are crime, the funding of the military, immigration and Britain's security threats. I doubt Europe will play a part in this election, which is a pity, because if elected a Conservative government will be the most eurosceptic ever, which is bad news for both Europe and Britain.
Mr Brown has not had an easy time since he replaced Tony Blair three years ago. He lacks his predecessor's charisma, he has faced internal party revolts and presided over the worst economic crisis in decades. However, the fact that he has managed to narrow the gap between the two main parties - because of the way he handled the recession - is a major achievement.
After 13 years in opposition, the political cycle is now in the Conservatives' favour, and they should win this election. However, the polls are showing that a hung Parliament is a real possibility, and this would radically alter the political landscape. Mr Cameron obviously has a lot more work to do to convince voters that he should be given a clear mandate to enter Number 10 and to bring about the change he believes Britain needs.