I am disappointed with the standard of campaigning in this election. Some candidates have not even bothered opening a campaign thread, and the ones who have have been perfunctory and have elicited little comment.
Since it looks as if I am about to lose the election, I thought I would wade in with a more general point based on what I said in my OP:
Will I let gormless obedience get in the way of common sense? No.
What I was thinking of is the attitude we seem to have to court rules, precedent and rulings. Often these are created in the abstract, and it is only as they are used and drawn on that shortcomings and loopholes are revealed. Unfortunately, we seem to have the attitude in TNP of treating these documents like Holy Writ, and our officials consider they are elected only to implement our rules. That is why we have consistently elected people with a middle-management approach rather than a leadership approach.
What I was thinking of was a little more nuanced. I would have treated our rulings and rules as a strong guideline and standard, but I would not have been afraid to say "yes, a previous court ruled XXXXXXX, but I think YYYYYYYY, and so rule."
Sometimes leadership means knowing when to set aside precedent and rules, and use common sense. I hope whoever is elected shows similar instincts.
