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.
If we didn’t know before, doesn’t Greece tell us something about what corrupt institutions do to the people who live under them? Is this really such a surprise?