Nothing is going to change until there is an election. I've been saying that for the best part of a year now.

This time last year Jeremy Corbyn wanted a general election but Theresa May was having nothing to do with the idea; she'd had enough of elections in 2017. Since then the House of Commons has been deadlocked.

How many times have you heard that we know what MPs don't want but we don't know what they do want, usually straight after another Government defeat on Brexit.

Theresa May lost three 'meaningful votes' on her deal this year. In January she lost by the biggest margin ever 432 to 202. At the third time of asking Theresa May promised to quit as Prime Minister if her Withdrawal Deal got through. It didn't but she resigned anyway having run out of options.

Now, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is desperate for a general election and Jeremy Corbyn is having nothing to do with it. No one really expected the new Prime Minister to get a new Brexit deal, but he did.

This time he won the vote on his Withdrawal Agreement Bill (WAB), but lost the vote on the timetable for debating and voting on the final deal. He said that would force him to call for another General Election and today he will. He wants an election on Thursday December 12.

Under the Fixed Term Parliaments Act he needs a two-thirds majority of MPs like Theresa May got for the 2017 election, which in real money means 434 MPs, but he cannot get that.

Labour will not support it - Jeremy Corbyn says he wants to make sure the possibility of a no-deal Brexit is off the table before agreeing to an early election. Labour is also trailing behind the Tories in the opinion polls, which suggest a substantial majority for Boris Johnson's party.

The SNP and Lib Dems are proposing a compromise. The SNP Westminster leader Ian Blackford said last week that an election on December 12 would be madness, so instead he and Jo Swinson are proposing to hold the election on Monday December 9.

What difference is three days going to make? It will still be dark and dreary and it is still in the run up to Christmas. But the SNP and Lib Dems argue that it means the election will be held before Brexit, denying the Prime Minister a further bounce in the polls for delivering Brexit.

They also say it means he can't fiddle the date to suit himself. This could pass as an amendment to the Fixed Term Parliaments Act because it only needs a simple majority, so if the Conservatives and their rebels, the SNP and Lib Dems back it, that would be more than enough. Labour is dismissing it as a stunt.

The Lib Dems and SNP have accepted there is little or no prospect of another EU referendum, and that it will take a "democratic event" to break the deadlock, so that leaves an election.

The EU has granted another extension until the end of January which means that October 31 is just Halloween, not the Brexit cliff-edge. Apparently kids will be dressing up as Boris Johnson to go guising this week. They won't want to leave without a deal either so get some sweets and wee oranges in for Thursday.

And if you survive the Brexit-themed guisers, watch out for carol-singing canvassers coming to a doorstep near you in the run-up to Christmas.