Third-party leader shocks U.K. election race

[frigidmagi]

msnbc

[quote]When Nick Clegg took to the stage for the first U.S-style TV election debate in British history three weeks ago, most voters would have struggled to recognize the politician if they'd bumped into him in the street.

What a difference 90 minutes made.

By the end of his battle of wits with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Conservative challenger David Cameron, the relaxed and affable Clegg's strong performance saw him being hailed as "the Barack Obama of British politics." With nine million people watching the showdown, the popularity of his centrist Liberal Democrats almost doubled overnight. A star was born and what had widely been seen as a two-way battle was suddenly wide open. In the following days, Britain’s feisty tabloids described the phenomenon as "Cleggmania."

Heading into Thursday night's third and final debate, Clegg's opponents now accept that the traditionally third-placed Lib Dems are a force to be reckoned with.

An avowed atheist who reportedly dabbled with transcendental meditation and famously declared that he has slept with "no more than 30 women," Clegg stunned his rivals with his ability to harness the power of the small screen to win over an audience deeply fed up with the status quo.

"For the rest of their lives Cameron and Brown will have nightmares about the debate," said political consultant and lobbyist Tom Ponton, who has strong links to the Conservatives and Lib Dems. "This is most exciting election I've ever seen."

Labour and the Conservatives have traded power since the 1930s, but polls suggest that no single party is likely to win a clear-cut majority of the 650 seats in the parliament when Britons go to the ballot box on May 6. The Conservatives appear likely to be the largest party, though Labour's solid blue-collar base is almost certain to prevent Cameron's party from gaining enough seats to form a government on its own. This would leave Clegg as a potential kingmaker who will decide which party to join in a coalition government.

'Three-horse race'
Clegg's party has jumped dramatically — to about 30 percent of potential votes in opinion polls — since the first debate on April 15. In early April, the Liberal Democrats were polling at 18 percent. Latest surveys show Cameron's party leads with about 33 percent and Brown's Labour sits third with 28 percent.

"It's a unique election in that we have not had a three-horse race in British politics since the 1920s," said Simon Hix, professor of European and comparative politics at the London School of Economics.

Cameron, the fresh-faced leader of the Conservative Party, was widely considered a shoo-in to be elected as the country’s next premier when Brown called the election.

After 13 years of Labour rule, Cameron promised an Obama-like platform of "change." But during the first debate Cameron was beaten at his own game by Clegg, who branded the two traditionally larger parties "old and tired" and spoke confidently and passionately on a variety of topics.

Clegg, a 43-year-old father of three, also vowed to clean up politics and called for an overhaul of the first-past-the-post electoral system, replacing it with a form of proportional representation.

Ponton cited Clegg's "movie star looks and bright personalityâ€

[Cynical Cat]

1: National Opinion Polls are worthless, as I recall you don't vote directly for Prime Minister, you vote for your representative and which ever party wins the most seats picks the PM.

Opinion polls aren't worthless in the parliamentary system, because the party leadership determines policy and is thus the single most important attribute of your local MP. When you vote for a Labor MP, you know you're de facto voting to put Labor into power and making Labor's leader the PM. There are exceptions, if the candidate in question is particularly good or particularly bad (such as my riding), but that's how it goes.

2: Clegg if you wanna move into this country, come on over buddy we'll get you a decent beer.

I don't know how to tell you this frigid, but America's beers have a . . . poor reputation in the rest of the world.

3: My thought here is what Clegg needs to do is well... Let me put this way, Labor and Tories are well dug in and entrenched. If he wants to change that he needs to blow himself a hole and start pushing through. Is this enough to do that though?

Labor and Conservatives both have the advantage of having their votes somewhat regionally concentrating, meaning they can deliver more MPs than their popularity would otherwise entail.

[frigidmagi]

I don't know how to tell you this frigid, but America's beers have a . . . poor reputation in the rest of the world.

The mass produced ones yes and they deserve it. If I ever hand someone a Bud light or a Coors be assured it's cause I'm deeply pissed at them. The Mirco Beers? Well that's where real beer is made. Hence that's where we'll get his beer. The big question is can he get used to drinking them cold?

[Cynical Cat]

The mass produced ones yes and they deserve it. If I ever hand someone a Bud light or a Coors be assured it's cause I'm deeply pissed at them. The Mirco Beers? Well that's where real beer is made. Hence that's where we'll get his beer. The big question is can he get used to drinking them cold?

Well the Brits have some barbarous customs. We'll see if we can introduce him to our civilized ways. As a side note, I understand it that Prohibition is to blame for the state of American beer. It killed off all the breweries so when it was once again legal it was the big soulless companies that became dominant.

[frigidmagi]

Well before Prohibition our beer industry was run by Germans. Now you can say alot about Germans but you can't say they make crappy beer. When Prohibition came along they were bought out by various American Corps and such for tax shelters and the like as I understand it. They started making beer again but without the Germans when it became legal and we were so used to rotgut we honestly had forgotten what beer was supposed to taste like anyways.