Gibraltar 2015 Election Year

Only 2 more days and we are firmly into the New Year and all expectations, hopes and dreams lay before us until the 31st December when we look back and realise that most of them lay at our feet in tatters.
If you follow Gibraltar politics then you will already be used to the cut and thrust of the blame game that serves as debate on our shores. If any country and its political class needed a kick up the arse, slap round the head and a severe ticking off by the headmaster/headmistress/Nun in charge. It's this lot. A recent Viewpoint which is what we have in place of the UK's Question time, in our case it should be called 'Dodge the Question Time' had our two party leaders happily digging away with some bright sparks of real entente cordial including the now infamous abrazos. Keen to point out they are the new generation of politician after the years of bickering between the two former leaders and Chief Ministers' Joe Bossano & Sir Peter Caruana. Apart from the obvious apparatchicks the general voter believes the only change are the voices.
Before the December 2011 election we were served a bland soup of what they haven't done in 16 years and what we will do. Followed - after winning the election - by currently 3 years of what we have started to do and what they didn't do in the previous 16. This kind of government has to stop before there is a meltdown and the U.N. have a mile long queue of Gibraltarians asking for a peace keeping force armed with school canes.
However for the general voter it is quite clear that after a very shaky start the current Chief Minister Fabian Picardo has not only grown into the role but has carried out his duties effectively and on the whole professionally. Mistakes will always be made but his years waiting for Mr Bossano to step aside have given us a Chief Minister that it seems is doing very well thank you very much both at home and abroad. It's just neither he nor his Ministers seem capable of carrying that confidence into Parliament and into their press releases. The Press Office at No6 is looking more amateur by the week and stories of all requests for interviews must go through them is frankly North Korean in its attitude - did you see what I did there Chief Minister? This inability to be straight with their answers in any forum means it looks like they are hiding something: which from the party that promised transparency is like giving the electorate the finger.

The recent cabinet reshuffle has created speculation of an early election possibly in May or June at the latest. It could also be seen as a strengthening of Picardo's position with the party, I say party and not an alliance because it is clear they are an alliance by name only as the Liberal manifesto was pretty much the GSLP manifesto and on everything they follow the lead of the GSLP. Which is fine because it gives us Joe Garcia, who wouldn't have been in Government without it and he is worth the votes. So, early election? Will the Government line up be the same or will they take their new found position in the polls as a 'time for change'? (I did it again there.)
The biggest question on the street at the last election was "Is Picardo good enough to run Gibraltar?" The biggest question now is; "Who can challenge him?" I think I'm right in saying no political party has ever only had one term in office so they seem a shoe in the worrying thing for opposition party members and exec's is they might have to endure more years than they planned in opposition unless they can seriously rethink their strategy too.