Photo credit: Downing Street

Word on the street today – well, on Guido Fawkes’ street – is that Prime Minister Gordon Brown is about to call a snap election to take advantage of the Conservatives’ diminishing lead. But betters beware: Odds are good that the odds are going to continue to change.

According to a Daily Telegraph poll out today, only 28 percent of those polled knew and liked the Conservatives’ platform, while the party’s lead over Labour shrunk to just 5 points. It’s up to leader David Cameron now to rally the troops at the Tories’ seaside retreat this weekend, The Financial Times reported today, “amid mutterings among some MPs and activists that the party risks wrecking a once-in-a-generation chance to seize power.”

Now, everyone’s mulling over Tories’ chances, first and foremost Tories. Michael Brown in The Independent today wrote, “On Sunday, David Cameron will strike a rhetorical note and call upon his troops to go back to their constituencies and prepare for government. But what seemed a certain victory last autumn now looks like a struggle. With Labour closing the gap, in spite of Gordon Brown’s tears and tantrums it must be frustrating for the Tories to see their poll lead melt. Polling evidence suggests that the Prime Minister might actually be benefiting because of his crying and bullying.”

Cameron, Brown wrote, may still have some tricks up his sleeve yet – if he follows his instincts and holds his ground, he may yet have a chance to take parliament. Still, cautioned Brown, “I never under-estimate the ability of the Tory Party to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.”

Others seem to also hold out hope: George Parker, in a long profile-style piece on Cameron in today’s Financial Times, wrote, “Despite the wobbles of recent weeks, Mr Cameron’s record as Tory leader suggests he is better equipped than most to keep cool as election day approaches.”

Meanwhile, Tories might actually be in denial about the fight ahead of them: Nick Herbert, Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, said during a radio interview today that the party still commands a significant lead and that the public wants the changes that Tories propose.

Denial aside, smart money wouldn’t discount neither the Tories ability to rally, nor Labour’s ability to implode. Jenni Russell, writing in The Guardian yesterday, said that Gordon Brown’s tantrums are more damaging than they some observers take them to be: Brown’s bullying reveals how deeply dysfunctional his government is, its culture of fear, and Brown’s inability to accept criticism or views that differ from his own. And Labour, she says, knows it: “Now they have no choice but to stay publicly silent or to deny what they know to be true. The Labour party will be crossing its fingers in the hope that the voters believe them.”

But will it matter? Andrew Sparrow, on The Guardian’s Politics Blog, also pointed to a BBC poll out today that revealed that whatever the outcome, voters aren’t going to be happy. According to Sparrow, “The result that would spread the most gloom would be a hung parliament with Gordon Brown remaining as prime minister.”