The British are having an election next week and I can hardly wait. They've done it American style this time with TV debates (two already, one to come) among the leaders of the three main parties--Prime Minister Gordon Brown for the governing Labor Party, Tory (Conservative) leader David Cameron and the smaller Liberal Democrats' Nick Clegg. He's been the star of the shows so far. A recent poll shows the Conservatives with 33%, the Liberal Democrats with 29 and Labor with 28. Can't get much closer than that. If no party gets a majority--and with poll numbers like those that certainly seems probable--there'll need to be some sort of coalition government. The likeliest coalition, because they're both left of center, would be between Labor (furthest left) and the Liberal Democrats. Their leader, Clegg, said this week that he could ally with either of the other parties but, if Labor ran third, a coalition with it would probably depend on Brown's stepping down as Prime Minister. The London papers loved it; Brown, presumably, did not. Cameron, meanwhile, has reached out to voters who have "idealism and progressive deals hardwired into their DNA." I have no idea what that means. But you've got to admit it all sounds like good nasty fun. Suppose we could have a third party? The Know-Nothings, maybe? We did once and they got some votes, too.
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