Cool Britannia

Before I say anything else, let me first address the title of this entry. The term "cool Britannia," a play on the traditional song "Rule, Britannia!" was thrown around a lot when Tony Blair first came into power. Right now, Blair's successor, Gordon Brown, has called for parliament to be dissolved and the future of the Labour Party is totally up in the air. Despite my Liberal Democrat leanings, I have a soft spot for Gordon Brown. Dunno why, really. I do, however, know perfectly why I do NOT want David Cameron and the Conservatives to be put into power. Even a coalition party would be better than that.

Is any other American as excited about this as I am? Seriously. Let me know if you are so we can be best friends.

So, while the announcement about elections and everything was happening in London, I was actually there to see it all first hand.

Ok, not really. I walked by the Houses of Parliament once to gawk at the hundreds of media camps set up to report on the unfolding events...but other than that, I was just bumming around London while it was all going around.

I took side trips to a few other towns in England and will probably be devoting a blog entry to each of them in the near future (though possibly not so near because I'm off to Paris in two days). As yet, I'm not sure how I want to chronicle my time in London on this blog. I mean, pretty much, I stalked ministers of parliament, ate a ton of fish and chips, hung out with some girls from Turkey and accidentally washed my hair with hand lotion.

If I think of some interesting way to present my wayward adventures in London, I'll let you know.

Until then, enjoy the first of many photos of the Lorax in the UK.