HAS IT ALL STARTED TOO EARLY? - 06 January 2010

Has it all started a little too early? No I am not talking about the seasonal sales but the political parties launching into the General Election expected in either May or March.

The proposed promises and polices have started to role off according to Nick Robinson of the BBC in his Newslog. He points out that on the first day we have learnt the following:

• The Tories cannot afford to introduce a transferrable tax allowance for married couples but dare not drop the idea altogether. They still have to decide what to do instead.
• They have also had to drop their pledge to scrap mixed sex wards and ensure that "every patient will be given the opportunity to choose a single room when booking an operation in hospital."
• The chancellor has conceded that under a re-elected Labour government no government department would escape cuts and does not deny estimates that these could average 17%.
Alistair Darling also refused to rule out increasing VAT to 20%.

We must not forget the Lib Dem's in all of this. Nick Clegg - the leader hardly recognised by the public, says that he is not the King Maker but the public are and that he will not enter into back room deals with other parties but allow the public to select the government they want. Not too sure here about his reference to the King - that Mr Clegg is a very different role from that of Prime Minister. It does annoy me that the wife of the Prime Minister is now called the First Lady - there is only one First Lady and that is the Queen and should we have a King then his wife will not only be the Queen but also the First Lady. Maybe I am just old fashioned!

Those who love the political knockabout will enjoy the next few months, but what about those who are not engaged in politics? Given the numbers that turn out to vote that is the majority of us , so will all this political banter just serve to increase the numbers of those who do not wish to engage in politics? I fear so.
One is also reminded that even if policies appear in manifestos they do not necessarily make it into law or policy, some are just ditched as soon as the elected party get into government - so can we really believe what we are being told?

I think it should all have been left until the three or four weeks of the election campaign, but then what do I know?