Will Woodward speculates in the Guardian today that Gordon Brown will call a general election next Spring. If so, this could well coincide with the London Mayoral and GLA elections. I have to say, I am not surprised. I’ve long found the idea of an October 2007 election unconvincing. GB is too cautious to cut and run so soon. And he will want to know that his ‘bounce’ is not an overnight phenomenon.
However, the thing that really bugs me is the way that the body politic in Britain — including the mainstream media — just accepts that it is OK for the Prime Minister to call an election whenever he thinks he has the best chance of winning it. Objectively, this is grotesque. In fact, our whole electoral system is grotesque. The lack of PR skews the result, so that in recent times we have had a situation in which a party most of those who voted did not support wins a sizeable majority. Then its leader gets the prize of trying to fix the following result by choosing the date of the election. If this were Africa, we would call it corruption. It’s all the more embarrassing when you consider that this country has the temerity to export democracy. One just hopes that other countries understand the reality that the Westminister system itself is deeply flawed, and that there are better models to follow.
Jonathan Fryer 