Britain's allegedly most unpredictable and close election in ages didn't actually yield that revolutionary of a result. While the Lib Dems do hold the key to a likely ruling coalition, Clegg's stellar performance in the TV debates and evident affinity for the campaign trail did not work the miracles they were expected to work according to the last polls before the election. Cameron's call for change did not part the sea either. With less than 50 seats ahead of Labour as of the moment, seems that the Broken Britain he depicted did not come running for a Torry repair work after all. It seems that the one man who managed to pull an ace of his sleeve was the one least expected to do so. Camera-unfriendly, charisma-deprived, gaffe-making Brown still has got some game. Now, heading a party who took the country to five overseas conflicts and is leaving it with a budget deficit the size of Mouth Olympus, Greek pun intended, you would wonder why.
Couple of reasons spring to mind. Firstly, Brits, the progressive, debate loving nation they are, are really not that at edge with the Establishment. That is, while traditional bi-polar politics split the country with dividing lines, faith in the present political class prevails. This is exactly what a Lib Dem party would generally fear. Lib Dems don't usually have sizable core lobbies. They don't appeal to extreme constituencies, like the very rich or the very poor, they require people to think. Their rhetoric has less room for populism. People are rarely born in Lib Dem families, they usually chose to vote so when they have the educational background to make political choices. So the only air that a Lib Dem party can get under its wings is one, a charismatic leader and two, dissatisfaction with the current political elite.
Arguably, Nick Clegg gave the UK Lib Dems the first. His dominance in the first TV debate is admitted by Fleet street, left, right and center. But the second ingredient of the recipe appears to be in shortage. If you compare what is happening in the UK now to when the Lib Dems, lead by the former monarch, won a landslide victory in Bulgaria in 2004, you would see where I'm coming from. Now, their's was a lesson into how you come from behind the scenes, capture a nation's thirst for change by decent rhetoric (albeit populist) and manipulate it to the complete fulfillment of your political agenda.
On a more pragmatic note, I also wonder how does a third party win seats in a country who's media has such strong bi-polar political affiliations (except, of course, one notable independent Independent). You think Italian media is biased? You should have seen the Sun yesterday. It had an Obamanized image of Cameron and a slogan "Britain's Only Hope." The FT today attributed Clegg's dazzling rise to the TV debates. Imagine what he could have done if he has some media backing as well.
And lastly, and I do mean lastly in terms of impact on campaign politics, come the good old party manifestos and whether or not the parties who are winning and losing did actually have a good plan to lead the UK out of recession. With the one camp propelling the nanny state and the other wanting schools to run themselves, there was so much room left for a mid ground policies. What was on offer, however, didn't add up on all counts, and some last minute voters might have caught up on their reading and figured it out.
