THE ABRUPT announcement of the snap general election has caught almost all elements of the political spectrum, not least the Conservative party’s own MPs, by surprise.

It has also lain to rest the fallacy that the Fixed-terms Parliaments Act 2011 was no more than a thinly veiled mechanism for keeping the previous coalition government in power for its full term.

The Liberal Party calls for the act’s repeal at the earliest opportunity as it does not serve the purpose for which it was conceived, that of guaranteeing a stable political climate for a full five-year parliamentary term.

Instead its purpose was rendered redundant in a hurried vote to dissolve parliament and rush to the hustings with the intention of propelling Theresa May back to power with a presumed majority in the face of a disorganised Labour opposition. This is an opposition party who meekly marched into the lobby to comply with the wishes of a Conservative government which presumably believes improving its own majority is more important than formulating a robust negotiating position for the impending Brexit negotiations.

Karl-James Langford,

Liberal Party in Wales,

www.liberal.org.uk