The first thing to be said about a general election in December is that it is necessary. This is the case regardless of your particular Brexit preference (though should that preference be a wish for it all to go away, I am afraid not even an election can offer you any relief). The government lacks a majority and no other government can be formed in this House of Commons. So an election is required. This is not Belgium and, indeed, the United Kingdom is not capable of being Belgium.
The second thing to be said about a general election in December is that there are vanishingly few good outcomes available. This is not a Conservative party that inspires any great confidence. But nor, in spades, does the Labour party. The Liberal Democrats, for their part, have hitched themselves to a cockamamie policy of revoking Article 50 and just cancelling Brexit. As a signalling mechanism this may have some use; as a matter of plausible policy a Bobby Ewing Brexit – in which we take a shower and discover it’s all been a dream – is a non-starter.
In Scotland, meanwhile, the election comes at the best possible moment for the SNP.
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