Free Republic

The Tory victory in the UK (although without glamorous fireworks at the end) was expected. The conservative wave that started in Germany hit Britain and is now on its way to America. The only surprised faces over the results were those of the Liberal Democrats. They thought that Barbie face Nick Clegg Obama-like rhetoric will carry them long way. The liberal media in the Great Kingdom drooled out so much saliva over St. Nick that Bernie Goldberg may collect enough for a Slobbering Love Affair – British edition... The Tories however did not get the majority. Two things sunk...

New HampshireThe day after the election, the BBC reported that the Iranian government was interested in buying MG Rover. This was a useful reminder of what one might call the internal contradictions of Blairism. It would be difficult to imagine circumstances in which the mullahs would buy, say, General Motors, yet here was George W. Bush’s alleged poodle presiding over a land where what’s left of the native automobile industry is happy to become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Axis of Evil. I’ve no idea what MG Rover makes these days, but no doubt it will soon be changed...

On election day, I happened to be motoring through the leafy lanes of Warwickshire, and thinking, as I do every couple of years or so, well, maybe I ought to get out the car and pick up some local colour and so forth. And, just as the thought occurred, I passed a Porsche dealership and a riding club and I realised, oh, no, I'm in Solihull. Nothing against Solihull, I hasten to add, but let's face it, it's not exactly the liveliest posting on anybody's election battleground map. "Conservative since the dawn of time," as the chap on the BBC's...

The British can be famously grumpy. No surprise there, you might think. Neither the food nor the weather is exactly conducive to a sunny disposition. And complaining has long been a favoured national pastime. But these days, with the economy performing well, and even the national sports teams winning on the international stage, you might have expected some lightening in the national spirit. No chance. In Thursday's election, it was a heightened mood of grumpiness that triumphed. For the second straight election, about four in ten voters did not bother to show up at the polls, many of them telling...

LONDON -- Prime Minister Tony Blair is facing a new claim that he agreed to resign before the end of his second term to make way for Treasury chief Gordon Brown, but then decided to stay on. He denies it. The feud between Brown and Blair is the most persistent rumor in British politics. But the latest twist came in a journalist's book alleging that Blair told his chancellor of the exchequer in late 2003 that he would quit before the next election, which is expected this year. Blair later reversed his position and decided to stay on, prompting Brown...

The openly racist British National party won a fresh council seat last night, bringing its tally of councillors to 18 so far in England. Caretaker Nicholas Geri, 47, took the Grays Riverside ward in Thurrock, Essex last night, in a byelection caused by the death of a Labour councillor. He said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the result. "We bring common sense," he said, despite being the grandson of Italian immigrants himself. "Things have gone the wrong way and the way that people don't want them to go, that is why they voted for us. "Asylum problems, NHS problems, crime...