UK Elections: Conservatives Win

British Prime Minister David Cameron has won a second term, and is bringing a Conservative majority with him: "This time Cameron looks set to be free from the constraints of coalition with the centrist Liberal Democrats. The Lib Dems, Cameron's partners in office since 2010, were almost wiped out, and their leader, deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, resigned on Friday morning. Cameron's victory in Thursday's general election obliterated opposition leader Ed Miliband's hopes of eking out a small win for Labour. Miliband also resigned in the wake of the defeat."

The result was a vindication of Cameron's much-criticized decision to run a largely negative campaign, stressing the risks to Britain's still-fragile economic recovery of a Labour government that would overspend and drive away investors through taxes aimed at the wealthy and their tax-avoiding practices.

But the prime minister's victory was partly the product of a relentless Conservative campaign to highlight the dangers of a Labour minority government propped up by the left-leaning SNP in Scotland – and this polarizes Britain in an unprecedented way. Critics have protested that the outcome, a tactical success in England, could accelerate the breakup of the United Kingdom.

...The Scottish result may be the more significant overnight development. The SNP, which lost a referendum to end the 308-year union with England last September, won all but a handful of Scotland's 59 seats, dozens of them from Labour in a region that was once a stronghold for the party and opening the way to significant influence in Britain's 650-seat Westminster parliament as Cameron's Conservatives seek to govern with a slender majority.

Welp. Voting for austerity and privatization and unfettered capitalism has worked out great in the US. I'm sure it'll work out great in Britain, too.

My condolences to British progressives.