Shadow Chancellor Michael Howard, speaking in Hendon, wouldn't reveal details of his policy "with three years at the earliest before the election" (Tax, health and future elections', November 29).

Well the electoral law isn't quite so precise, or so restrictive.

What it says is that a general election must be held within the lifetime of a five-year parliament following the last one, leaving its actual date to be 'fixed', subject solely to the more or less formal consent of a supposedly non-political monarch, by the prime minister of the day according to what he reckons will best serve his personal or party political interest.

Many today regard such a prerogative, needlessly magnifying the Prime Minister's power, as an anachronism. Most other countries happily manage without it.

All it needs to end it is a simple all-party Bill instituting fixed-term (preferably just four year) parliaments elected, on a set date except where, as now, it takes an unscheduled election, following an early dissolution, to resolve a political crisis.

There are still four-and-a-half years left for that in this parliament.

Walter Grey

Arden Road, Finchley

December 5, 2001 11:01