The Fixed Term

The political atmosphere has been febrile this past few days. No doubt this will continue. It is meat and drink for journalists and vastly entertaining for bystanders. But is it eally necessary? Does it really advance the cause of democracy or good government? Goe it make our lives any better? Probably not. In the end it has about as much impact as CSo if there is one reform I would like to see come out of this it is the fixed term Parliament. Come up with a figure - four, five, six, seven - it doesn't matter. What does matter is that there is a beginning and a certain end to a government's life. During that term it will not matter how effective or unpopular a government is, the end will be known and we can all shape our lives around this certainty.

Such certainty will avoid the silly efforts we have seen today by a desperate PM. If he had a fixed term he would not need to go through any of this other than the need to remove incompetent ministers. But this isn't about competence or otherwise. It is about conveying an illusion that this is about a government with the right dynamism. If we had fixed term this would not matter and ministers would be able to say truthfully that they "were getting on with the job".