Iain – I am delighted about the Boris Johnson victory (heck I just like that the name Boris is still in play). I am also delighted that the conservatives are rousing themselves (particularly since I may be over there sometime in the nearish future). But can I offer a bit of skepticism? I know you know the political scene in Britain roughly 1,000 times better than I do. But it seems to me that Labour was/is in many ways in the same position as the GOP is here in the colonies. When in power for a very long time, the ruling party gets associated with the status quo and therefore bears the brunt of the desire for change. Some people (mostly in my mail box and in recent conversations) seem a bit too eager to identify the British elections with a rising tide of resurgent conservatism in the West. I’m sure there are data points to support that. But I’m not convinced that the Conservative victories in Britain amount to much more than a positive upside to the more universal and time-honored practice of throwing-the-bums-out, a practice that will work against conservatives in the US for a while more.
Anyway, delighted to be proven wrong and otherwise illuminated.