Britain Votes

Britain’s general election is today, and recent polls show the Conservatives edging upward, close to the numbers they might need for a majority, assuming that the more complex seat calculators are right. Betting markets still give more than a 50% chance of a hung parliament, however.

What I don’t understand is how a Labour Party that has overseen the worst recession of any advanced country, ASBOs (which have been used to jail people for having noisy sex or going to a club), the creation of an Orwellian surveillance state in which camera monitors can nanny passers-by through installed megaphones, a smoking ban, and a national identity card can still be in striking distance of first place. Surely they must be down to their core vote – I’m just surprised that their core vote is so large.

UPDATE: In an odd footnote to the final day of campaigning, the former party leader of the UK Independence Party – perhaps Britain’s most classically liberal party apart from their immigration stance – who is also a parliamentary candidate with a good shot at winning a seat from the current Speaker, survived a serious plane crash this morning:

Remarkably, he is reported to have suffered only moderate injuries.