Letter from London

By the time you read this, the UK will be in the full swing of a new parliamentary term, but for now we are in the early post-election blues, after a surprise landslide win for the Conservatives on May 7th. Or perhaps we are in the post-election "Blues," for blue is the color of the Conservative party here in the UK where, for Americans at least, red is blue and blue is red. The campaign was a strange affair, both urgent and lackluster--but decisive. England went blue. London, Wales, and the north of England stayed red, apart from the very richest constituencies. Scotland went Nationalist. The other parties crumbled. The aftermath was swift. Heads rolled. According to The Guardian newspaper on May 8th, it was a tumultuous election that "decapitated" three party leaders.