The Prime Minister has just announced that this year's election will happen on November 26. Good. I'm in favour of fixed election dates, and this is the next-best thing: an announcement so early as to remove all uncertainty. It doesn't solve the problems around the government being able to deal themselves a new hand (rather than work with the one we gave them) if they fall out with their coalition partners - but it does prevent any gaming of the system around electoral finance or to maximise their chances of returning to office.
Of course, grace and favour is not enough; while an early announcement is good, I'd like to see a legally fixed election date to remove all of these uncertainties. But that would require getting politicians to agree to limit their own power. And as we saw with MMP, that's a very difficult thing to do.
