Election Day in Britain

The British have voted and the ballots are being counted this very moment. It sounds like Tony Blair is going to win, but with nowhere near the mandate he had in the last election. I've been watching a bit of the coverage on C-SPAN2 where they're simulcasting the live feed from the BBC. I must say our electoral college maps with red and blue states are loads more entertaining than the giant pendulum the BBC is using to illustrate the balance of power. Most people don't realize it, but the British don't actually vote for an individual Prime Minister. Instead, they vote for MP's from their geographical district. The party with the most MP's elected to Parliament then gain the power of having the Prime Minister. Conceivably, Tony Blair's Labour Party could win the majority of seats, but he could lose his local MP election and thus would no longer be Prime Minister. I don't know if a case like that has ever happened, but it sure seems like a loophole to me.

At the very least, you can tell I paid attention during my Contemporary Britain class. The class, which was taught by a professor from Oxford, surprised me with a few thoughts about Blair that I don't think most people from the States realize. The first is that ideologically, Blair is closer to Bill Clinton than he is to George Bush - other than his stance on the war on terrorism. Blair was a hated man by many in London during the spring of 2003 when we were there because of his support for the U.S. intervention in Iraq. In fact, I just finished reading a book by Ian McEwan called Saturday that chronicles a day in the life of a London doctor on February 15, 2003 - the day of the largest protest ever in London when a million people marched against going to war in Iraq. Much of the anti-war sentiment remains against Blair, but his other policies would be considered quite liberal compared to our Republican Party. Part of the reason the Labour party is so popular is because they allow themselves to shift with public opinion. As my professor noted, "Labour is party completely governed by polls."

As I write this, Labour has won 4 out of a possible 646 seats in Parliament. You can watch the live BBC coverage by clicking here. Drudge has a headline up at the moment claiming that exit polls show the Labour will lose some seats, but still are going to win in a landslide. Considering the current world climate, it's an excellent outcome no matter which side of the pond you're on.