I read an interesting article this morning by author Richard Fisher.
He was speaking about The Long View, a new book he has written exploring how modern life skews our perspective on time.
I’ve not read the book, but his theory that our sense of time is malleable, depending on varying temporal stresses, is an interesting one.
My daughter was born during the 2014 independence referendum.
When I view time – and politics – through the trajectory of her life, it blows my mind.
It was only last year that she finally learned to tie her own shoe laces.
But she’s already been around for two constitutional referendums, three general elections, two Scottish parliament elections and five prime ministers.
We could add in to that mix a global pandemic and crises of all colours but it’s probably best not to dwell too much on the unprecedented stresses of our recent history.
Even when you take a shorter view, looking at all that has happened since the last general election, you’re left feeling slightly nauseous.
‘Lack of accountability’
The fact that we have got through the chaos of the last three years without an early general election is a sign of complete dysfunction.
It also betrays a lack of accountability by those that govern us.
It takes an astonishing level of party mismanagement, mischief and misdeeds to chip away at a landslide majority and sky-high polling numbers in the way the Conservatives have done since the 2019 election.
Yet rather than refer back to the electorate, in the way that we deserve and should expect, they have simply passed the baton on to the next person.
Liz Truss’s short-lived stint as prime minister exposed the inherent flaws in that approach.
Rishi Sunak is also governing on borrowed time – he hasn’t earned the support of voters and there’s no sign that they will endorse him come the next general election in 2025 either.
‘Enough is enough’
Last week we saw Boris Johnson formally exposed as a serial liar.
We also saw the list of gongs and titles the disgraced former prime minister handed out to his sycophants and minions as part of his honours list.
There has to come a point where enough is enough.
The tipping point has surely been reached – it has toppled over under the sheer weight of scandal engulfing the Conservative party.
The UK Government has long lost the right to simply cling on to power.
Snap or early general elections aren’t popular – least of all with the party that looks likely to lose them.
But they are an important mechanism for righting wrongs and offering a reset after a particularly turbulent period of instability.
We’ve gotten used to mid-term changes of leadership without elections but that doesn’t mean it’s an acceptable way to treat the electorate.
And what’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
We can’t lambast such Tory shenanigans without also noting that our new first minister was also crowned without the Scottish public getting a say.
We don’t have a presidential system in either Scottish or UK elections but there’s no doubt that leadership plays a huge part in deciding which party gets your vote.
‘The rot has set in’
Given recent polling that suggests Labour would beat the SNP in Scotland and the Tories across the UK in a general election, we shouldn’t be surprised that there doesn’t seem to be much appetite for an early general election from either of Scotland’s two governing parties.
But it is clear that the rot has set in.
It’s just over a year until the next general election is due.
That’s a short period of time if you’re a party that is anticipating a trouncing, as the Tories are.
But it seems a very long time away if you are a voter worried about the state of the country.
And it’s much too long if you have lost confidence in those whose job it is to fix it.
It has long been a dream of mine to go on one of those fancy trains with white tablecloths where you get to sleep over and perhaps solve a murder or two.
At the weekend I had a night away at a converted railway station in Dalmally, near Loch Awe.
The rooms retain all the original fixtures and fittings of the old station and I thoroughly recommend it to anybody who loves quirky trips, trains, or both.
The Victorian station has been lovingly restored to offer accommodation to guests, but it is still on a working line.
I was sitting contentedly at the wee table and chairs on the platform outside our room when the magnificent Royal Scotsman chugged by in all her glory.
My squeals of delight were probably a nuisance to the local wildlife but it was a genuinely thrilling thing to see.
Anyway, long story short, I checked how much a trip on the Royal Scotsman costs and if anybody has a spare £10k lying around that I can borrow I promise to put it to good use.
