British election campaign enters final week
0 
The British general election is only five days away and the race now looks between two parties -- the main opposition party the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats, the traditional third party in the nation's politics.
The ruling Labour party looks certain to lose its majority government, but clings on to the hope that though it cannot win the most votes next Thursday it may yet win the most seats, courtesy of Britain's first-past-the-post voting system.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg sought to shape the final week of campaigning on Friday when he said: "Everyone wants change, it just depends what kind. It's a two-horse race between fake change under David Cameron and the real change offered by the Liberal Democrats."
Clegg spoke on the morning after the last of three live TV debates which have shaped the election to a startling degree. The debates between the leaders of the three main parties are an historic first for British politics, although they have been a staple of election campaigns in the United States for nearly 50 years.
Clegg has been the star of the election, benefiting from the equal footing the debates gave him with the two main parties, Labour and the Conservatives. For the past 90 years Clegg's Lib Dems have been the largely-ignored third party of British politics but the first TV debate catapulted Clegg onto the national stage and pushed his party into second place in the polls, a position they have held in most polls since.
He gave an exclusive interview for Saturday's edition of "The Guardian," the left-wing newspaper which has been a strong supporter of Labour and is read by many in the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties.
In the interview, Clegg made a bold bid for Labour support and underlined his claims to be a force for change, "Polls are putting us ahead of Labour, and that will crystallise in the next few days into a two-horse race.
"I personally think both the Tories and Labour face profound crises of identity because they are both based on assumptions of mass support that have now evaporated. The arrogance of both the Conservative and Labour parties that it's somehow their birthright to speak on behalf of millions of people -- that's gone."
In a significant move, "The Guardian" supported Clegg by dumping its pro-Labour stance and advising readers in an editorial to vote for the Lib Dems.
The winner of last night's TV debate was seen by many polls as Conservative leader David Cameron, whose party has been out in front since long before the campaign began. But the lead his party enjoys is not enough to put him into Downing Street on May 7 with a majority.
Cameron made an appeal on Friday to his core voters and to floating voters wanting change, "I do not take anything for granted and we have got to fight a very hard campaign in these last six days to really win people over and say: change is possible, change can happen."
Go to Forum >>0 Comments