On and On

David Cameron's announcement that he won't stand for a third term as Prime Minister if the Conservative Party wins the general election, sounds eminently sensible to me.

Because no elected political leader should be going 'on and on' in the manner of President Putin of Russia or President Mugabe in Zimbabwe. 

Comparisons are being made between David Cameron's decision to come clean and that of Tony Blair, but the two situations really are very different.

Having won three general elections in a row the Labour leader was effectively forced into announcing his retirement after a long campaign by Gordon Brown and his supporters which not only damaged the Labour Government but the Labour Party as well.

Because instead of an election the country witnessed a coronation and so Gordon Brown was never really tested before being handed the top job which, as everyone knows, ended in disaster and a heavy Labour defeat in 2010.    

American and French Presidents, for example, can only stand for two terms of office so as to avoid personality cults developing and the concentration of political power in then hands of a single person.

And now that the Westminster Parliament has fixed 5 year terms what's not to like about a political leader setting out a clear position because if Alex Salmond had not stood down as Scotland's First Minister, he would have faced exactly the same dilemma in 2016.