Real Kato Blog: Labour Party Wins

Tony Blair's Labour Party won the election in Great Britain today. Does America even know, or care?

It was a minor headline in the United States today. "Blair's Labour Party Wins Re-Election". While most people around the world probably followed the U.S. presidential election in 2004 with great interest, I'd wager that the majority of Americans didn't even know Great Britain was having an election, much less who the candidates were.

Here's a quick primer on British politics. The majority party today is the Labour Party, which is a centrist party but would most likely be compared to the Democratic party in the United States. The main opposition party is the Conservative Party, the "Tories", whose members are like U.S. Republicans except not quite so influenced by Christian fundamentalists. There's also a significant third party, the Liberal Democratic party, who are bit of a mix between the American "Green" and "Libertarian" parties... in other words, left-of-center and liked by many, but with candidates who are generally considered to be unelectable.

The Labour Party won re-election, though their majority has been narrowed somewhat. That means Tony Blair will still be prime minister. His party was widely expected to be hurt by the fact that Blair backed the war in Iraq. That turned out to be true, but it was the Conservative party that reaped much of the gain, and that's weird because it's not like they opposed the war in Iraq either. It's been strange to listen to Blair defending his decisions about Iraq just like Bush did, when his party is supposed to be the more progressive peace-dove party, as compared to the hawkish Tories.

So anyway, America, that's your five-minute lesson on British politics. You may now go back to watching the Michael Jackson trial.

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