On Hearing that the PM might call a General Election.

(It was the headline in the GRUANIAD amongst other places.)

And what good, pray, would that do?

It would not give a clear answer to the most pressing and important question of the hour: What to do about Brexit?

It might, it is true, produce a government with enough of a majority to push through its own view of how Brexit should be handled but only perhaps. It is quite conceivable that it produces a further stalemate.

How would any of the parties be able to produce a unified and believable manifesto on the topic of Brexit? How would my local MP, who is a member of the ERG, stand on a platform that would suit Dominic Grieve, the anti-Brexiteer in the next constituency over? Both the major parties are split on the issue, sometimes several ways.

And both the major parties are officially of the opinion the Brexit Is The Only Way. Given our outdated and deliberately unrepresentative electoral system how are those of us who want nothing to do with it to have any chance of being heard?

It’s like being told that you have to shoot yourself in the foot but you are going to be given the important choice of which foot to shoot yourself in.

(I’ve used that line three times today: I’m that vain about it… Some major commentator should take it up. I would only charge a small amount for the rights. And some annoying person will now come along and tell me I’m unconsciously stealing it from somewhere.)