MY, HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE... – AT 10:25 A.M. ET:  Britain holds a major election on May 6th.  The election is in turmoil thanks in part to the spectacular performance of Liberal Democratic leader Nick Clegg in a recent TV debate. 

Clegg, representing a party of eccentrics, skyrocketed in the polls, makiing this a genuine three-way race with the Tories and Labour.  But now, having gotten what he wished for, the Lib Dem leader is learning the American way of press scrutiny.  His fall may be as quick as his rise.  From the Daily Mail:

Nick Clegg was forced on to the defensive last night over his expenses and lobbying activities.

The Lib Dem leader regularly claimed more than Gordon Brown and David Cameron and charged the taxpayer for three kitchen upgrades in six months.

He also billed for foreign phone calls, napkins, cake tins and for hundreds of pounds to prune his fruit trees.

Questioned over his expenses relating to his constituency property, he hit back, bizarrely saying: 'It's not my home, it's yours.'

That ranks right up there with, "I was for it before I was against it."  The Brits are learning.

 - As the Lib Dems faced unprecedented media and public scrutiny following their extraordinary poll bounce:

  - It emerged that Mr Clegg worked as a partner of a major European lobbying firm, G-Plus, only five years ago

  - The Lib Dem leader repeatedly refused to say which main party he would back in a hung Parliament

  - The spotlight turned on to the expenses claims of other Lib Dem MPs

Figures showed half the Lib Dems' recent donations came from a figure linked to disgraced benefactor Michael Brown

Mr Clegg's claim to be a straight-talker was undermined by his repeated refusal to indicate which party he would back if a coalition was necessary to form a government.

'I'm Nick Clegg, I'm not Nostradamus,' he said yesterday.

And he's not prime minister either, and won't be.  Most of British politics is pretty creepy, and even the conservatives are barely acceptable.  No Churchill waits in the wings to protect the Brits from the nanny state, with its jihad-friendly immigration policies.  Britain, I'm afraid, is a mess.

We'd looked to the May 6th elections to bring the conservatives to power as the least of three evils.  Now there is a possibility, with three parties contending, of a hung parliament, which means bargaining and hopeless compromise.  This comes at a time when Obama has quite visibily downgraded the U.S.-Britain relationship. 

Well, at least they gave us the Beatles.

April 21, 2010