The Sunshine Empire

There is nothing in politics quite like the epic drama of an American presidential election. Now stretching over two years, when one election ends the next one begins. But our British brothers and sisters prefer the action packed thirty minute television episode to our 3 hour long movie. That action packed drama of three weeks culminated yesterday in the general election in Great Britain and I spent part of the night watching the returns on BBC. Afterward I was astounded at how Americanized British elections have become.

The first big change this year was the introduction of American style televised debates. Though the British Parliament’s question time for the prime minister essentially gives Britons weekly debates between the party heads, official general election televised debates like our presidential debates had not occurred until this year. But the BBC broadcast seemed almost like an election night in the United States. The seats held by Labor and the Conservatives were laid out in red vs. blue just like here, and the broadcast was replete with magic walls and green screened fantasy worlds. Much like American broadcasts, exit polling was predicting the outcome before a single vote result was announced. Conservative candidates were also proclaiming victory in the same tones as Democrats in 2008, saying the people had voted for change.

As many similarities as there were, there were also striking differences in the way Britons do elections. Watching the BBC coverage their hosts were amazingly argumentative with party heads and politicians that came on to spin and blow smoke. It’s something that American networks could learn from. Another interesting aspect was the overwhelming turnout that occurred and how under prepared they were for it. One election official interviewed admitted that the system was really set up for a Victorian era election and that polling places would not stay open later than scheduled. In the United States it is not uncommon to have a judge keep polling places open later due to turnout.

In the end, the British ended up with a hung parliament, meaning no one party was able to achieved a majority of seats in the House Of Commons. Tradition states that the existing prime minister is entitled to first shot at putting together a government despite losing. David Cameron’s Conservatives won the most seats but not enough to rule outright. The Labor party if it went into coalition with the Liberal Democrats, would still not have enough seats to constitute a majority so it looks like an odd couple coalition between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems. It’s also fascinating to see the analysis of the composition of the Conservative party. Much like the Southern regional nature of the Republican party in America, the Conservative party is almost entirely English. That causes difficulty with regard to governing in places like Scotland and Wales with the political devolution that has occurred over the last decade.

The next few days will be fun to watch.