Thursday, October 04, 2007

Will he? Won't he?

The prospects of Gordon Brown calling a snap election appear to be receding (see here). It had seemed a shoe-in prior to the Tory Party conference, but David Cameron's bullish speech allied with some private polling figures seem to suggest Brown will stick rather than twist.

What a wonderful day for democracy, when once again the Prime Minister gets to pick and choose - within a generous five-year span - about when he or she goes to the polls. I mean, even if you ignore the gross inequalities in our electoral system, surely the concept that the sitting government gets to maximise its own chances of re-election by picking what it thinks is the best time to go to the polls is anti-democratic? Why should Gordon Brown choose? In fact, why should anyone choose?

Gordon Brown is a disaster waiting to happen for this country. Oh, he might tick the right boxes among those who take everything he says at face value - I bet you still think most people are better off when he abolished the 10p rate of income tax, or that Labour spends its money wisely when the NHS is making cuts left, right and centre despite all that funding. You probably think taking 1,000 men out of Iraq by Christmas is an act of conviction, and not one bought about by political expediency (nice timing on the announcement, by the way). And don't get me started on the man who talks about eco-towns on the one hand, but who wants to concrete over yet more vanishing countryside on the other.

It's all very well telling us that the Tories haven't costed their proposals - Labour have made a fine art of making grandiose promises with little to substantiate them. Still, when you can pick and choose exactly when to hoodwink the electorate for a fourth time, who cares?

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