Posted on 04/02/2015 1:22:31 AM PDT by Winniesboy
The best thing about the British elections, some might say, is their relative brevity...
But while 30 March was the ceremonial kick-off in a race that will end in just over a month, a shadow campaign has been going on much longer. And it has some analysts and politicians worried that the UK is heading down a path toward the US model of electioneering that lasts months and even years.
The culprit, they say, is the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, passed in 2011, which mandates general elections every five years. It's a change from past tradition, which set five years as the maximum the UK could go between balloting. More than likely, however, the prime minster used to call a "snap election" earlier, at a politically opportune time...
The Fixed-Term Act has resulted in a "zombie Parliament," writes Philip Johnston of the Telegraph, "with nothing to do in its last year except exist in the nether world of the living dead"....
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
Sure, as long as the date is fixed there is no reason for the campaign to ever end.
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