ARE elections a lot of fun, as Mr Major insisted yesterday in Downing Street? He may love standing on his soapbox but we suspect that everyone's patience will be stretched over a campaign which will last for six weeks and a bit, surely the longest in living memory. Yet the tedium, as well as the excitement, matters little beside the essential fact that as a people we are at the rare point of being able to exercise our democratic rights on a national basis. This is no small matter, indeed the daily rough and tumble of political life (which has been rough and full of tumbles for a very long time now) has somehow led us to believe that we are in a sense participating directly in an ongoing democratic process. We are not; the centralisation of government in Britain and the accretion of power to the Cabinet has distanced us in fact, although comprehensive media coverage has given an illusion of

involvement.

Many of the protestations of politicians, including Mr Michael Forsyth's alleged desire to devolve power right down to street level, is so much eyewash. Our real chance comes once every five years and it is a precious opportunity which must be used with care and after a good deal of thought. The election we face is a uniquely important one, particularly in Scotland where the constitutional issue, which in its wider context should be of acute interest to everyone in Britain, is a source of particular attention. After each of the past two General Elections this newspaper was contacted by foreign observers who wanted to know whether there were demonstrations on the streets, given that Scots had voted overwhelmingly for one party only to be governed by another. They were surprised and a little disappointed at the calm response. This is a mature democracy and a Union, we told them. Yet even mature

people have been known to stamp their feet and while we do not expect anything like street protests in the event of another Tory victory, it is clear that the democratic deficit and the wider and crucial area of constitutional reform must be addressed by whoever wins the election if the legitimacy of our democratic process is to be maintained. This applies nowhere more urgently than in Scotland and if the Union, which we wholeheartedly support, is to be upheld there must be a swift testing of the will of the people; if approval is given for a devolved parliament it must be set in train as soon as is possible. We began by asking if elections were fun. That is perhaps going too far, but we have seen much debasement of the business of government in recent years and it is time to recover our pride in a process which in an important sense defines us as a people.