Nothing new here, all the crap I hear about GB's administration is actually characteristic of the later period of a long administration.
I am normally fiercely against the idea of restricting the freedom of voters to vote for whom they will, but I am beginning to wonder whether some way of at least making a change more likely before fossilisation sets in, could not be arranged. I do not believe that a change of leader is sufficient: Brown is arguably incumbent at least in The Street for a dozen years and so well sclerotic; but Major betrayed all the same symptoms, as if he had been in power for years.
There are mechanisms in place I suppose: in the Tory party it is The Backstab from a Lesser Being, which disposed of Maggie not overly long after her allotted time (the question of when she had outstayed her welcome - everybody knew she had - being quite different from the question of whether she had one in the first place, over which the nation was and remains bitterly divided). In the Labour case I suppose it is the development of independently squabbling power groups, together with an accumulation of sleaze that is just too much for any party to bear; though a party that can bear Mandelson for the third time must be able to put up with a lot.
No matter: if we elect governments for 3 full terms or more, we will get pathological fantasy rulers every dozen years or so.
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