Ok - this thread is for people to post items of interest (if any) on the UK election. We non-US'ns all laughed at Florida last November (remember? That was when the Japanese sent emergency supplies of Viagra to Florida because they'd heard they couldn't hold an election!)
Some background. UK has 2 and a half main parties and many smaller ones. Labour (or in US "Socialist") has a large majority with Cheshire Cat Tony Blair as the leader. The Conservatives (or in US "Socialist") have Little Willie Hague as their (to be kind) leader. The polls seem to be running at 48% Lab, 30% Con, 18% Lib. The Times and Financial Times have today announced their support for Labour in this election.
Scotland and Wales have no Conservative seats, but a lot of nationalist support for Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru. Northern Ireland of course has a large number of parties from the extreme Unionist (stay in UK) to extreme Nationalist (join Eire).

One peculiarly British phenomenon is how well the "silly" parties do. Do you have silly parties in other countries and how well do they do in elections? The best known in UK is "The Monster Raving Loony Party" and you can look at their policies and electoral record at http://www.omrlp.com/. They have not won any national elections, but have a few local councillors, and one was even the local mayor for a while.

The only real excitement we have had in the hustings was when the deputy prime minister John Prescott punched someone who had thrown an egg at him, changing his nickname from "2 Jags" to "2 Jabs" overnight.

One of the issues in this election is fraudulent voting, made easier by the latest rules (or relaxation of them) on postal voting. The Northern Ireland slogan of "Vote Early, Vote Often" is now "Post Early, Post Often".

And now the word link; voting as somone else is known as personation not impersonation.

Rod