Election fever?

I don't know if it's just silly season in the press or the Labour party conference or a combination of both, but it seems all of a sudden that we may be in for a general election here in the UK.

Anybody who's read my previous entries will know that there's a lot that bugs me about the British political system is that there is no consistency and politicians can use that to their advantage... a prime minister who can see he's reasonably popular (or the opposition is unpopular) can take advantage of this and guarantee themselves 5 more years in office.

This is the problem. The only thing that is guaranteed from the viewpoint of the public is that there must be an election every 5 years. There is, however, no rule that sets out a minimum term so there is no way for us to know for certain when change will happen. The US presidential system in comparison is set up so there is a definite 4 year term - the person elected is expected to work out their entire term, if they have to quit before this is up their deputy takes over and, short of a disaster, elections take place according to a pre-determined timetable. The incumbent can't use short-term popularity to guarantee further time in office by calling a snap election.

I'm not going to single out any particular political party as being to blame for this... both Labour and Conservative parties have used this ploy in the last few decades. However, much like the situation with the House of Lords and our unelected head of state, this isn't likely to change in a hurry.

So, our upper house is unelected. Our head of state is unelected. Our government, although elected, can play the system to retain power for as long as possible.

And I was brought up to believe that the UK was a democracy. Hah!