British Election Tomorrow

Thursday is the election.  All members of parliament are up for election and the vote will determine the next prime minister.

Yet I've seen very little sign that there is an election going on.  There was this small sign in a window near our hotel. 

We saw this one for the conservatives yesterday in the countryside of Essex about an hour out of London to the west. 

Saturday afternoon, while visiting a distant relative for tea, a Liberal Democrat (Lib Dem is what the announcers call them) candidate for local council came to the door.  He was asking for her vote and he also had the MP candidate down the street if she wanted to talk to him.  No, she wasn't voting Lib Dem.  She's for Labour.  He wanted to know the issues that were important to her.  But she said she didn't have time, she had guests for tea.

He pointed out that the Labour Party candidate was not even from here while the Lib Dem candidate lived on the next street over.  (You don't have to live in the district you represent.)

The newspapers and tv have lots of coverage.  Pickles is the chair of the Conservative Party and the local candidate from Brentwood and Ongar where I am in Essex now. 

And even Simon Cowell has a word on the elections.

The polls have the Conservatives ahead, but not by that much and with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats with significant percentages.  They say 40% of the electorate is still undecided.  If the Conservatives cannot get an outright majority, it seems that Gordon Brown (the Labour Candidate and current Prime Minister) will continue as Prime Minister until a coalition government is formed.  Whoever wins, our host thinks that a lot of services people here are used to will be cut.