Thursday, May 06, 2010

UK elections today

Big day across the pond as Britain votes in a new Tory government, with David Cameron as Prime Minister. There's no question at this point that the Conservatives will finish with substantially more seats than Labour. It's less clear whether they'll be forced to run a minority government or will be able to pair up with the Liberal Democrats* or, if they get close enough to a majority, with the DUP of Northern Ireland (the main -- and most hardline -- unionist party).

*From what I can tell, the Lib Dems are "liberal" in a more classical sense than we think of, a center left party that's strong on civil liberties, pro-multilateralism and pro-peace, but its current leadership is squishy on the welfare state, preferring more free-market-y solutions than Labour. Still, their manifesto sounds pretty rockin' to me. Amazing how much ideological space there is between "centre left" and "center left."

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