I believe (but may well be wrong) that when this python code was written the FixMyStreet RSS feed did not contain a pub date for the issue, so we just used the current date. Remember that this was code we only had a day to write. Now the FMS RSS feed does provide the issue creation date so that should be used here.

As @dracos says the issue is not the validity of the python, but the accuracy of the date that is being stored.