The British general election is next year. A lot is on the line, and it looks like the Conservative Party might soon find itself back in power for the first time in over a decade. One good sign that things are falling apart for Labour is the multitude of scandals in the current government, which is reminiscent of nothing more than the collapse of the Major government in the 90s, that paved the way for Tony Blair.
Now, I have some admiration for David Cameron, the Tory Leader. He's clearly a smart and polished young leader, one more reminiscent of Blair than of Thatcher, and I suspect that eventually American conservatives will pattern themselves after him after a style, if he's successful. When they do, we'll all be better off. But I just find it baffling that Britain, after the past several years of virulently anti-Iraq public opinion, would elect someone who supported Iraq wholeheartedly. I find it baffling that, after a global crisis in which HBO Scotland and other British banks had to be nationalized, that the party closer to business would be the one voters think ready to pick up the pieces. This is a structural weakness of two-party systems--that the party out of power might not really be equipped to fix the problems that cropped up with the last crew. The funny thing is that Britain actually has a fairly large third party--the Liberal Democrats, who initially looked like a more clearly-left alternative to New Labour before breaking dramatically toward the right and moving into the same crowded middle space that Labour and the Conservatives already occupy. In retrospect, this was even a dumber move than originally thought, as Labour has been thoroughly disgraced and unless the party dumps Gordon Brown as a leader it doesn't have a chance. And, when you get down to it, Britain doesn't really have a clear choice. There is some open space on the British left, considering recent corporate malfeasance. That the Lib Dems didn't take it will probably be the deathknell of that party, which only really got any power because of student opposition to the Iraq War in the first place.
I do think it's interesting that, when you get down to it, the West tends to move together in terms of politics. Right now, neoliberalism is dominant in America as well as Europe, and the result has been that center-right, neoliberal parties in Europe as well as America (until very recently) have been placed in power. Before that, Thatcherist politicians were being elected in many nations, from Britain (obviously) to Israel (pick an Israeli PM from the 80s) to America (Reagan, of course). And before that, politics in the West were substantially more to the left. I just wonder if neoliberalism is beginning to fade out, and Obama represents what might be the next stage in the West's continued political evolution. It will be curious to see what changes he might propagate.
