Monday 2 March 2020

I'm Going To Swing Me An Election!

Make no mistake, you're already on dangerous ground when you try to provoke an early election.

Minority parliaments are by necessity tailor made for elections -- but more to the point, for parliamentary cooperation first.

That's the gist of the game: you're expected to make a genuine effort to get meaningful things done for the country. Point One.

Then comes the strategic imperative of having an opposition issue, or at least a legitimate one that you can rally the country with. If you've got that, then timing is secondary. Under that type of righteous indignation scenario, your protest vote in defeating the government could quite conceivably work, even after only several months in for the Liberal minority.

But failing that, you're on thin ice politically. Governments generally defeat themselves, goes the old adage -- so you better be damned sure that you've already got it in the bag before you pounce politically. Otherwise, it's likely curtains for the emboldened and a returned and reinvigorated mandate for the besieged.

If it's not 1979 all over again, then you're royally screwed.


No comments:

Post a Comment