Catching Up -- The UK Election

The UK had an election in May and it was fun watching up close someone else choose their leaders. The election here technically only lasts a month -- Gordon Brown dissolved Parliament and the country went to the polls one month later. But in reality, the election was going on for years. The Tories choose their leader (and PM candidate) years before. Brown himself was chosen as leader of Labour in 2007. He had not been "elected" Prime Minister but took over when Tony Blair retired.

I live in what is a very safe Tory seat. In fact, Kenningston is something of a glamor seat for the Tories. This is a big difference from the US. While the Tories, like the Republicans in the US, control most of the rural seats (that is, those rural seats in England, the Tories barely exist in Scotland and do poorly in Wales), the Tories also do very well in the well to do urban seats. Kennsington would be a safe Democratic seat if it was located in Brooklyn, Chicago or any other major American city. Yet here it is such a safe seat that Malcolm Rifkind, a former cabinet minister during the Thatcher-Major years, holds it comfortably.

The election featured a number of firsts, most noticeably the first leaders' debate. I found myself explaining the ins and outs of these debates to my co-workers, as such debates are common in the US. In the UK they seem somewhat superfluous. The two (really three counting the Liberal Democrats) leaders face off weekly in Parliament during "PM Question Time". They know each other and have crossed swords for years (metaphorically of course, according to legend the distance between the two is slightly greater than two sword points, to prevent them from crossing more than the metaphoric sword). So the people have seen them debate and know where each stands.

This is not really that true in the US. Debates in Congress these days are mostly drab affairs conducted in front of a mostly empty chamber. The real work of Congress takes place in the committee rooms while the real debating occurs outside Congress, in our journals and on TV. While both President Obama and Senator McCain served in the Senate together for four years, did they ever really debate each other? And given that many Presidents and candidates for presidents are governors, it is possible that the first time they really spoke meaningfully to each other may be the day of a debate. Did Gerald Ford meet Jimmy Carter before their first debate in 1976? Bush and Dukakis in 1988? Bush and Clinton in 1992 for that matter? So for us, the debates are much more important.

The election ended sort of like ours did in 2000 with no clear winner. The Tories have cobbled together a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, and everyone is still arguing over what it all means.

I wondered down to Downing Street the night the government was formed. A crowd had gathered. Happy Tories, angry Labourites, and a large group of people from the Socialist Worker Party calling for revolution or something. There also was a professional heckler. Heckling is an art form here. It is considered proper form to heckle on the floor on Parliament. About the only time there is no heckling it seems is during the Queen's speech. The guy stood there with his megaphone and made fun if everyone. The Tories heckled him back, the Labour folks were not in a mood for fun. The Socialist Worker contingent stood there and planned revolution or something.

So the election took one week. The uncertainty last about another. And they did it much cheaper than we do. Maybe we can learn something from the "Mother of Parliaments."