Even the most politically addicted must by now be wearying of the UK's longest ever election campaign. The coalition decreed fixed term 5 year parliaments as a means of ensuring that it stayed in business as long as possible and had to whatever the stresses and strains upon it. The former arrangement was that a government could run to a full five year term or at any time call a General Election with just 21 days notice. Although it did give the incumbents an advantage in being able to pick their timing it made for a short, snappy campaign during which it was possible to say most things once and then get on with the business. The speed of the process gave it impetus, energy and pace which swept many voters along with it. There was a sense of involvement and genuine, lively debate.
May 7th's election is yawningly different. It really began last year with the Scottish referendum which the Better Together campaign mistakenly thought they had won for at least a generation. The SNP thought otherwise and has kept peddling ever since.
The party leaders are well known and there is little enthusiasm for any of them. Cameron remains seen as an aloof patrician, Miliband an aloof north London socialist geek and Clegg whatever he is. The rest range in many minds from the seemingly loopy to unthinkable as future leaders of government. Farage is a good man-of-the people type speaker/debater but his gloss is beginning to come off . He could have been entertaining and lethal in a three way debate with Cameron and Miliband as neither is as quick on their feet as he is and he wouldn't be relying on a script written by an Australian or American adviser or even Alistair Campbell. The SNP duo, Sturgeon and Salmond, can come over well and spontaneously but simply grate and irritate south of the border.
Arguments about austerity v borrow/tax and spend flow back and forth in WW1 trench warfare style. It's a slugging/slagging match and nobody is winning. TV viewers are immune to staged pictures of politicians in hard hats, high vis jackets or other ill fitting "work" garb as they colonise shop floors, schools or hospitals wringing their hands about this and that in front of bemused "ordinary" ad no doubt "hard working" staff. One off sideshow scandals come and go. A BBC or ITN political reporter declares "This is serious for X Party or Y leader". But it isn't. Not really. The audience is used to and expects a bit of this and that as part of the Punch and Judy show. Few such things change its voting intentions,if any,very much.
So what's missing? What's not happening and why is most of the nation finding it all so tedious?
The big gap is that nobody so far has put forward a vision for Britain. There hasn't been one. Nothing at all. Somehow big plans and visions are not part of the British way of doing things. Most people would like and rally to them but back in the 1960s Labour's George Brown was ridiculed for his National Plan and politicians have been scared of them ever since. We know that the NHS is under strain but nobody has proposed to do anything other than to throw more money at the underperforming state monopoly monolith which needs root and branch review and a PLAN. The taxation system ,occupying 11,520 pages spread over 5 volumes is unbelievably complex. That's because it fulfills two very different roles . Firstly the collection of money and secondly as a system of social and other micro engineering. The UK tax code in 2009 ran to 11,520 pages spread over 4 volumes. It needs reform and a PLAN. Hong Kong's, which shows flat rate taxes, no VAT, Death Duties,or Capital Gains Tax is contained in just 200. Then there's Education, Immigration, Europe and the rest. No real plans for any of them. The noise around them is mainly wheelspin. Lots of disjointed statements but no PLAN.
There is a glimmer of hope though. Last week a vision did appear. It was not labelled as such and related only to transport infrastructure but it was a vision all the same. With details to be announced this week, the news is the development of a much enhanced road network across the country. Taken together with rail infrastructure plans (including more electrification, revival of some closed links, enhanced signalling to give more line capacity) already announced and in some cases under way, this means there is now a government vision although it doesn't seem to recognise a vision even when it announces one. If each party could now announce similar strategies for all departmental activity and wrap them into their individual "Vision for Britain" to lay before the electorate there would be some exciting choices and the campaign could come alive.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem likely to happen .Despite the media's attempts at hyping anything that comes to hand this is likely to be the longest and dullest campaign ever.
May 7th's election is yawningly different. It really began last year with the Scottish referendum which the Better Together campaign mistakenly thought they had won for at least a generation. The SNP thought otherwise and has kept peddling ever since.
The party leaders are well known and there is little enthusiasm for any of them. Cameron remains seen as an aloof patrician, Miliband an aloof north London socialist geek and Clegg whatever he is. The rest range in many minds from the seemingly loopy to unthinkable as future leaders of government. Farage is a good man-of-the people type speaker/debater but his gloss is beginning to come off . He could have been entertaining and lethal in a three way debate with Cameron and Miliband as neither is as quick on their feet as he is and he wouldn't be relying on a script written by an Australian or American adviser or even Alistair Campbell. The SNP duo, Sturgeon and Salmond, can come over well and spontaneously but simply grate and irritate south of the border.
Arguments about austerity v borrow/tax and spend flow back and forth in WW1 trench warfare style. It's a slugging/slagging match and nobody is winning. TV viewers are immune to staged pictures of politicians in hard hats, high vis jackets or other ill fitting "work" garb as they colonise shop floors, schools or hospitals wringing their hands about this and that in front of bemused "ordinary" ad no doubt "hard working" staff. One off sideshow scandals come and go. A BBC or ITN political reporter declares "This is serious for X Party or Y leader". But it isn't. Not really. The audience is used to and expects a bit of this and that as part of the Punch and Judy show. Few such things change its voting intentions,if any,very much.
So what's missing? What's not happening and why is most of the nation finding it all so tedious?
The big gap is that nobody so far has put forward a vision for Britain. There hasn't been one. Nothing at all. Somehow big plans and visions are not part of the British way of doing things. Most people would like and rally to them but back in the 1960s Labour's George Brown was ridiculed for his National Plan and politicians have been scared of them ever since. We know that the NHS is under strain but nobody has proposed to do anything other than to throw more money at the underperforming state monopoly monolith which needs root and branch review and a PLAN. The taxation system ,occupying 11,520 pages spread over 5 volumes is unbelievably complex. That's because it fulfills two very different roles . Firstly the collection of money and secondly as a system of social and other micro engineering. The UK tax code in 2009 ran to 11,520 pages spread over 4 volumes. It needs reform and a PLAN. Hong Kong's, which shows flat rate taxes, no VAT, Death Duties,or Capital Gains Tax is contained in just 200. Then there's Education, Immigration, Europe and the rest. No real plans for any of them. The noise around them is mainly wheelspin. Lots of disjointed statements but no PLAN.
There is a glimmer of hope though. Last week a vision did appear. It was not labelled as such and related only to transport infrastructure but it was a vision all the same. With details to be announced this week, the news is the development of a much enhanced road network across the country. Taken together with rail infrastructure plans (including more electrification, revival of some closed links, enhanced signalling to give more line capacity) already announced and in some cases under way, this means there is now a government vision although it doesn't seem to recognise a vision even when it announces one. If each party could now announce similar strategies for all departmental activity and wrap them into their individual "Vision for Britain" to lay before the electorate there would be some exciting choices and the campaign could come alive.
Unfortunately that doesn't seem likely to happen .Despite the media's attempts at hyping anything that comes to hand this is likely to be the longest and dullest campaign ever.
