What do you think the outcome will be?
Labour victory - between 75 and 125 overall majority. If there is a Madrid style attack all bets are off.
Are there any differences between the two main parties?
Yes - Labour have a non-zero chance of forming the next government
How does the political process differ from that in the US? Does that make it better or worse?
A few obvious ones :
- We have a Parliamentary rather than a Presidential system so in theory we are voting for our local MPs rather than Blair/Howard/Kennedy (in practice that is rarely the case though)
- Not even in Florida would they allow our postal vote system
- No head to head debates
- Religion, abortion and 'moral values' will not be factors (although worringly people are trying to make such things feature over here)
Will the result have any significant effect on US/world politics?
Not really.
Do you think the Liberal Democrats will have much of an impact this time?
Probably not - if they do anything it will be to
really hurt the Tories by taking a slew of marginals.
Who are the Liberal Democrats?
A schizoid party - the Liberal part with the freedom of the individual history and the Social Democrat part with more of the big government/welfare state kind of agenda.
The Tigers roared in Dublin - and I was there.