We're going to be not-a-family blog for a minute. Deal with it.
You may or may not have noticed, but last week the U.K. government called a new election, set for May 6. It's a big deal: Will Labour finally lose control of government to the Tories after 13 years in power? Can Prime Minister Gordon Brown stave off a challenge from a charismatic conservative leader in David Cameron? Does anyone else think the Lib Dems are as cool as I do? (Certainly not British voters.)
To help you get up to speed on the election, let me recommend our profile of Cameron by James Crabtree, who is an editor at our sort-of-sister publication, Prospect magazine. Alex Massie, who blogs for the Spectator, is also a useful source of election news. The New York Times' London Bureau chief, John Burns, previously covered elections in Iraq, so you can expect this story will be a bit of a cakewalk for him.
However, for truly excellent commentary, let me recommend one Malcolm Tucker's election blog. You may recognize Tucker, who is in fact not a real person, from Armando Ianucci's film In The Loop and the BBC series The Thick Of It. I first became aware of the movie and show when Spencer Ackerman helped add some verisimilitude to the film. Somehow the Guardian has gotten someone to write Tucker's take on the current election -- perhaps it is Tony Blair's former communications majordomo, Alistair Campbell, the model for Tucker's role -- and it is hilarious stuff. Take this, on the Tories' campaign promises:
Look, big picture. The truth is the Tories, and now Darling with his my-dick's-as-big-as-Thatcher's cuts boast, have both been trying the same Jedi mind trick on folk for a while. It goes: OK, we are going to be tough, we're going to be so fucking tough. We're going to be brutal, you need to accept that, and we want to get the credit right now for telling you straight out how very stripped down and Mad Max in Jo'burg the future is going to be as everything goes a bit Democratic Republic of Pete Tong in the public services.But the second part of the scam is a few nice policy announcements that go: thanks for all the credit for scaring the shit out of you so straightforwardly, but actually wink wink mate, you know what, it's probably not going to be that bad. And mostly it's going to be some other poor dope who takes it up the 'arris – because, weirdly, we've had a look at the numbers and there might actually be a treat in all this crapola for you as it goes, because you're not one of these filthy greedy fuckers you see on the news, you're one of the good guys and we'll sort you out, pal.
Both the movie and the TV show are must-see viewing for political junkies. I'm not allowed to embed YouTube videos of Malcolm, because they include a great deal of cursing, but for our swearing-comfortable readers let me direct you, oh, here and here.
-- Tim Fernholz
