The Nation: Britain Braces for the Shocks to Come

[marmar]

Britain Braces for the Shocks to Come
Gary Younge

May 13, 2010 |


For all the talk about Britain being on the threshold of a new politics, events following the recent election reached a somewhat familiar conclusion: a group of posh white guys thrashed it out in a room and then went to Buckingham Palace for the Queen's blessing.

The guys in question (and they really were all guys) were the Liberal Democrats, led by former Nation intern Nick Clegg, and the Conservatives, led by David Cameron, who after five days of haggling decided to form a coalition government.

Someone had to. For the first time in almost forty years, an election produced no clear winner. Indeed, each of the main parties lost in its own way. Despite the bad economy and a fractured government run by the most unpopular Labour leader in decades running the worst campaign, the Conservatives could not get a majority of the seats. The Liberal Democrats performed far worse than they and the pollsters had predicted and actually lost seats. Labour lost seats, vote share, power and its leader.

So now Cameron is prime minister and Clegg is his deputy. Whether this new government can last and for how long is an open question. They campaigned for different ends of the spectrum, with the Liberal Democrats at times to the left of Labour. Historically, their traditions are dissimilar but not antithetical.

When asked what blows governments, former Prime Minister Harold Macmillan once replied, "Events, dear boy, events." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/article/britain-braces-shocks-come

[Captain Hilts]

1. Liz Windsor represented diversity in the process. It's a Man's, Man's World. In the US it's

a Yale/Harvard world.