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No election
By Huw Leslie | October 11, 2007
I’m really relieved that Gordon Brown won’t be calling an election this autumn, for a couple of reasons.
The big one: I want to vote as soon as possible, and won’t be eighteen until October 2008. So there musn’t be an election before then. Any point after October 2008 is absolutely fine. Had there been an election in November, there would be no compulsion upon the resulting government to go to the country until November 2013.
The smaller one: I don’t want a hung parliament, which was a risk had there been an election. Neither Conservative or Labour have a defining vision at the moment to unite the country behind them to any meaningful extent, as Margaret Thatcher did in 1979 (rescue Britain from the misery of the Winter of Discontent by wrestling control back from the unions) and Tony Blair did in 1997 (socialism that doesn’t damage the economy). This means that the poll results are more unstable, and voters more fickle. We can see that by the massive effect that the relatively insignificant Tory announcement of an increase in the threshold for income tax had on the polls. This instability could, possibly, have led to a hung parliament, which would have been bad for Britain, since we wouldn’t be able to go in any particular forward direction with a coalition.
So Gordon Brown ultimately made the right strategic decision, with the added bonus of letting me vote more quickly after I turn eighteen.
Topics: Politics |
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