Can someone please explain the differences between the political parties in England?
At first glance, the Labour are the liberals and the Tories are the conservatives, roughly corresponding to American Democratic and Republican parties. (Actually, the Tories are technically called Conservatives; “Tory” is a holdover that’s still used a lot.) And the system is roughly similar: the House of Commons is made up of representatives from districts, just like our House of Representatives. Their elections are scheduled whenever they feel like it, more or less, unlike ours, which are set in stone. And they strictly limit campaigning; they’re horrified at how long we’ve already been into our primaries. But there are a lot of differences making it more complicated. Most important is that the British system hasn’t settled into the two-party system the way the US has. It’s dominated by the two main parties, but there are a lot more local parties (like Sinn Fein, from Northern Ireland) and special-interest parties (like the Social Democrats, more liberal than Labour). That means that
