Here we go again

23rd September 2016 Blogs 485 Views

The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected.

Preparations for the General Election are moving along nicely:

  • A plum Tory seat has just become vacant in the heart of London, leaving the bombastic Conservative candidate for Uxbridge with a bit of a dilemma apparently,

  • The Labour leader is doing his best to distance himself from anything – and anyone – who might do something that makes him look bad,

  • The Deputy Prime Minister – yes, remember, Nick Clegg is still that – is more and more obviously starting to bite the hand that fed him the scraps, trying to distance the Lib Dems from the worst of the Tory policy excesses

  • The gurning, guffawing golf-club bore that is the UKIP leader is fiddling like crazy whilst the Rome that is his party damns itself ever more effectively every time one of the candidates opens their mouths

  • The only party so far to talk about housing has made absolutely no sense whatsoever about it, claiming a ‘brain-freeze’ on local radio.

    In the meantime, the Stock Market has closed at its highest level since the zenith of the dotcom bubble, and there are signs that house prices are recovering everywhere, not just in London.

    So, all good then.

    With two and bit months to go, though, it’s all going to get a bit more frantic. Hopefully, there will be some coherent housing policy that comes from the main parties. In the last few months there has been a recognition that we are still not building enough homes. Help to Buy, has of course, helped. How long that sort of government help lasts will depend on how much money is left in the coffers and who gets past the post first and third on May 7th.

    This time five years ago, the Lib Dems were flying high in the opinion polls, largely on the back of their leader’s TV appearances. With the scheduled TV debates this time round supposedly featuring every Tom, Dick and Nigel party it might be hard for anyone to be heard above the shouting.

    Here we go again.

    • About Fiona Russell-Horne

    Group Managing Editor across the BMJ portfolio.

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