Vote of no confidence?

I have been researching how general elections are triggered and am a little shocked to find out that it is harder than I thought, and than it was up until 2011.

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 came into force on 15th September 2011.

Amongst other things the Act removed the power of the Queen to dissolve Parliament and trigger a general election and neither can a government trigger a general election anymore. 

Early elections can now only be held if either a motion for an early general election is agreed by at least two thirds of the whole House or if a motion of no confidence is passed and no alternative government is confirmed by the Commons within 14 days.

Currently general elections are set to take place in May of every 5th year and as such the next election will be May 2020.

There has been a petition circulated recently calling for the matter of a general election to be debated in Parliament however despite high levels of support the topic is not going to be discussed. The response from the Cabinet Office states that under the new aforementioned Act no government can trigger a general election however Parliament can and it is Parliament who should be discussing the petition.

The organisation 38 degrees have started a campaign calling on the leader of the largest party in opposition to call for a vote of no confidence in the Government however it has received limited support to date which has surprised me as 38 degrees has always seemed a popular vehicle for expressing points of view and bringing about change.

As such I am curious as to what you think. Should we have an early general election? I would be really grateful if you could click on the Yes or No button on the poll at the top right hand side of my blog, if you would like to leave a comment explaining your viewpoint or commenting on this post I would be happy to receive your comments.

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Image Credit: Clipart Kid

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