It was vaguely amusing to see most parties yesterday breaching council bylaws (will they be fined as I would be?) by putting up election posters (see here)before the writs were even issued. Perhaps by the time you read this they have been...
Amongst the many political changes (see here for two examples) that could be flagged to create a fairer democratic playing field, this namby pamby right that a sitting government has to time the call of an election to suit its own purposes should be questioned.
Why not agree that terms will be fixed (4 years?) and that elections always happen on the, say, first Saturday of May or what ever.
The great advantage of such a system would be that the voting public would have a clear idea of the time frame a government could set itself, and make a realistic assessment of what it believes a given party can promise. Instead we find that this time of critcal scrutiny of governments towards the end of their elected term is muddied by minor questions like ...will he, won't he call an election? Makes sense to me.
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