Election date, or lack of....

[dangerousdave]

We seem to be weeks away from a general election, but no dates have been given?

This confuddles me. Could anyone explain why the UK system is like this? The Americans seem to have nearly a year to do their election campaigns

How can any member of the public be expected to make a rational thought and decision through various parties debates and manifestos in such short time???

 

[fawkes2]

As soon as an election date is set a period of "Purdah" will be declared and
civil servants (and members of the armed forces) will be unable to make public statements as the elections are nominally fought by the parties on an equal footing of exposure and resources.

In short it is not in the the government's interest to declare the date early as they will be obliged to stop using Departments of State and their associated staff to produce propaganda.

Probably announce date around next week's budget.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

OpSec man, OpSec !

 

[hackle]

And in fact the General Election cannot legally be declared ahead of time. Of course there is nothing legally to prevent a date from being mentioned or predicted, but once Parliament has been dissolved there is a fixed timetable for the General Election procedures. The UK parliamentary General Election timetable is short compared with many other countries.

 

[box-of-frogs]

May 6th has been banded about as a likely day. If it was to be then, when is the last safe moment for them to call it???

 

[OldSnowy]

Slightly off-topic, but has anyyone else noticed the vast amount of advertising, on Radio and TV, from Government, recently?

Only today in the course of 15 mins in the bathroom I heard one ad telling over 75's to renew their Driving Licence (why? don't they know this already?) another telling me that OldTimers sufferers are human (which I already knew), a third telling me to inform the DVLC of any change of car ownership, and a fourth saying that the programme is sponsored by NS&I (presumably a quango of some sort).

Is this because:

a) the Government is keen to keep the public informed

b) it's the end of the financial year, and there's money to be wasted

c) there's no-one else stupid enough to advertise on ClassicFM, or

d) there's an election looming, and the Government want to make sure everyone knows that they 'care', and are doing a Good Job.


Personally, I go for the latter.

 

[hackle]

May 6th has been banded about as a likely day. If it was to be then, when is the last safe moment for them to call it???

Monday 12 April.... I believe!

 

[Uncivil_Servant]

May 6th has been banded about as a likely day. If it was to be then, when is the last safe moment for them to call it???

Monday 12 April.... I believe!

Sounds about right - if I recall correctly, there must be at least 17 working days between announcing the election and going to the polls. Allowing for bank holidays etc, April 12 would be bang on.

 

[box-of-frogs]

May 6th has been banded about as a likely day. If it was to be then, when is the last safe moment for them to call it???

Monday 12 April.... I believe!

Sounds about right - if I recall correctly, there must be at least 17 working days between announcing the election and going to the polls. Allowing for bank holidays etc, April 12 would be bang on.

Roger. Out.

 

[Mongo]

This confuddles me. Could anyone explain why the UK system is like this? The Americans seem to have nearly a year to do their election campaigns

American elections are on a fixed, four-year cycle. Ours have to be within five years of the last one, but the rules aren't more specific than that.

 

[BuggerAll]

6 May is the date of the local elections which is why it is being bandied about as most likely to be suitable for the General Election. However five years is the maximum period for a Parliament. This is specified within provisions contained under the Septennial Act 1715, amended by Section 7 of the Parliament Act 1911.

The five years run from the first meeting of Parliament following a UK Parliamentary general election. The current Parliament was first summoned on Wednesday 11 May 2005, so will cease to exist at midnight on Monday 10 May 2010. A general election to elect the new Parliament must be held by no later than Thursday 3 June 2010.

The significant savings to be had by holding the election on 6 May will probably not influence Brown - wasting the tax payers money has never been a problem. If he thinks he can hang on for an extra 3 weeks and maybe things will be better after 3 weeks then you can reckon on an election on 3 Jun.

 

[uncle_vanya]

Well, by the 6th of May, we could always hope that Pa Broone has turned into a cabbage.... and been gurneyed off to a Funny Farm.....

 

[bobthedog]

Old Snowy I agree with your last reason for all the advertising, the reminders of how they wish to control our lives, the "2 pints of Beer or 2 Glasses of Wine" is the prime example at the moment and particularly annoying. Its not as if they havent got better things to do with our money. It is an entire waste of taxpayers hard earned, particularly because these ads could be broadcast over the State Broadcasting Organ the BBC. They seem to be biased towards Labours policies, so why dont they broadcast the "Public Information Films" too.

 

[heard_it_all_before]

I suppose that Labour has to make sure that whatever day that the Polling Stations are going to be open will also have to clash with the Feral Chav benefit's thieves being able to get to the booths to cast their vote. Also, allot of engineering will have to go into making sure that there's enough traffic chaos on the roads and plenty of rail delays in the home counties so that the Tory's fan base can't get there in time to spoil the party...

 

[batfink]

timetable can be found here:

http://www.parliament.uk/commons/lib/research/briefings/snpc-04454.pdf

 

[OllieReeder]

Slightly off-topic, but has anyyone else noticed the vast amount of advertising, on Radio and TV, from Government, recently?

Only today in the course of 15 mins in the bathroom I heard one ad telling over 75's to renew their Driving Licence (why? don't they know this already?) another telling me that OldTimers sufferers are human (which I already knew), a third telling me to inform the DVLC of any change of car ownership, and a fourth saying that the programme is sponsored by NS&I (presumably a quango of some sort).

Another example is the numb-nuts FCO poster campaign that has just started appearing on the Tube pointing out that the lovely holiday destination you booked might not still be so lovely by the time you actually visit, so you need to check their Travel Advice website.

"What earthquake in Haiti?" (Though how many people booked holidays there before the earthquake anyway?)

I hear southern Sudan is lovely this time of year.

The real reason is Mandelson's determination to keep Soho's hard-working guacamole makers afloat. If the advertising companies go under, so do they... Has no one spared a thought for all those delightful bijou eateries?