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| Friday, May 06, 2005 |
| Inching left? |
The election is over in England, with Tony Blair's Labour party elected to an historic third term, though with a substantially reduced majority in members of Parliament. England has a very user-friendly election system - each constituency elects an MP, the party with >50% of the MPs gets to install their leader as prime minister and fill the rest of the cabinet. It was very enjoyable to watch last night on the BBC - their reporting was so much better than in the U.S. Here are the results.
What's also interesting about the UK elections is that the results are formally announced in each constituency, with all the candidates in the same room on the stage when the announcement is made. So while many safe seats are not surprising, it's interesting to see opposing candidates' reactions in close races.
The Iraq war weighed heavily - many Labour voters swung to the Liberal Democrats, who had a fairly good night as third-parties go... moving from 52 seats to 62 seats in Parliament (out of 646). If I was British LibDem would probably be my party, though I also love the fact that Labour, the majority party, is Center-Left not Center-Right.
Anyway, an interesting result in England, not altogether unexpected. It will be interesting to see what happens between the Conservatives and the LibDems from here on out... can the LibDems continue to drag the country leftward to a point where they are equal in stature with the Tories. Let's hope. |
posted by CB @ 9:07 AM   |
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