Stop hijacking our elections

摘要

The Electoral Commission's review of the local government election cycle in England is an opportunity to tidy up the present tangled mess of elections and encourage participation in the democratic process. Currently, national issues for which councillors have no responsibility hijack council elections. This lowers the status of local government elections to large annual opinion polls on Westminster politics with little connection to local policies, priorities or performance. Whatever the pledges of opposition, prime ministers will probably always want discretion over general election timing, although councils are unlikely to be given similar discretion locally. Without general elections being a fixed point in the election cycle, the tidiest 'one election year' vision remains beyond reach.