General election called ... "purdah" starts

The General Election has beeen called and Parliament will be dissolved early next week. Indus Delta will follow the "purdah" convention during the election period. Although things will get a little quieter, we shall still bring as much "news" as we can.

Between now and election day on May 6th, the apparatus of Government (Ministers and civil servants) cease to take significant decisions and avoid any matters of controversy. The principle of avoiding active engagement on politically sensitive matters can also apply a little wider and - during the period of heightened political awareness - it is also the case that non-governmental organisations avoid being sucked into the electoral fray.

There are two consequences for Indus Delta:

• we will retain our political impartiality by exercising care about commentary we publish
• as very few decisions will be made by the Government over the next 4 weeks, we expect "official news" to virtually cease

So, whilst the next 4 weeks will be a maelstrom of activity for the politicians if not the voters, things may get a little quiet on the W2W front.

A very good summary of the purdah convention can be read at http://www.wragge.com/analysis_5609.asp