How ready are the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems, SNP, Brexit party and Greens for the snap poll?
Preparedness
The Conservatives have been obviously preparing for a general election since the summer. The signs were all there, even while Boris Johnson was insisting he did not want to go to the polls, with the appointment of Isaac Levido, a protege of Australian election strategist Lynton Crosby, as campaigns director. Two women from a thinktank background, Munira Mirza and Rachel Wolf, have been writing the party’s manifesto for months. MPs have been hitting the phones canvassing, and special advisers are expecting to be assigned roles in Conservative party headquarters and on the campaign. “We are much more advanced than when Theresa May called her election in 2017,” says one adviser.