next to fall?

[bishop]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...opean_elections

it seems to me that as our coalition partners continue to lose elections, we will be forced by default to withdraw our own.

i wonder, if blair's government collapses, what sort of government would replace them? one that's interested in partnering with the european mainland, or maintaining the cozy relationship with the bush administration...

[Lunaris]

The most likely is our fairly decent Conservative leader Michael Howard, he is a true Atlanticist and likes America very much. Free economics and suprisingly liberal socal policy are begining to mark the conservative party over here.

Howard is a Thatcherite and will support GWB in foreign policy for sure.

[bishop]

i've noticed that british conservatives also are increasingly socially liberal. of course, that's generally the way all of europe is.

this story seems to suggest that britons are issuing protest votes - where their opposition to the iraq war is pivotal.

[PatrickHenry]

Please define socially liberal.

[bishop]

no different than the LP's platform on social issues..

pro-choice, lax anti-drug laws, anti-discriminatory, anti-censorship...

[PatrickHenry]

British conservatives are more and more socially liberal?

[bishop]

from what i've been reading, yes (in some respects at least - definitely in abortion and drugs).

[Nono]

Until the European Parliament grows some sort of real political teeth, these elections will continue to be a sort of referendum on national governments and a means of letting off steam. Expect to continue seeing at least one aging porn star per poll. Is Michael Howard the Great White Hope or just another Tory loser? Is Tony Blair lap-dog/Bambi or is he Stalin-in-disguise? It ain't the European elections that'll clear any of that up.