In Downing Street are they asking "Could we?"

The BBC are faithfully reporting the latest Swine Fever news as their main headline, ramping up the fear and maybe starting a panic. Meanwhile, I wonder if in Downing Street Gordon Brown and his officials are wondering how bad Swine Fever needs to get (or more accurately the fear of it needs to get) before they could use the Civil Contingencies Act to legitimise rule by decree and the suspension of democracy. I wonder if the mere thought of this untrammelled power soothes the brow of our otherwise stressed out Prime Minister. There are EU and local elections in just over a month; elections which Labour seem likely to do very badly in, elections which Gordon Brown may prefer to postpone for a while (maybe a long while). Could he?