Commentators on the British General Election mostly focus on the country's dire economic situation, and the forthcoming huge spending cuts which none of the candidates will fess up to. But what would an election be like that was about a country's soul, not its economy? It does happen sometimes - the last US Presidential election was pretty clearly about that, and Obama won largely because he was able to engage people on the level of purpose and spirit.Looked at from this angle, the British election has some encouraging aspects: the Conservatives have dropped many of the views (homophobic, covertly racist) which had them labeled as "the nasty party", while the success of the Lib Dems means that anti-Europe and anti-immigrant rhetoric has played a very small part in the campaign - or has been limited to the fringe parties who specialize in hate and division. (This makes a welcome contrast with the US, incidentally, where the party of Hate - aka the GOP - is very much on a roll.)
Cameron, aside from the image and spin, is clearly a loving and caring father, and as (potentially, symbolically) the nation's parent makes an interesting contrast with Margaret Thatcher. Nicknamed "Milk Snatcher" for abolishing free school milk when she was Minister for Education, she was the bad mother who took away the sweets (candies) which we didn't deserve and which weren't good for us, and who punished us for our laziness and self-indulgence with the bitter medicine of mass deflation and unemployment. And (not very far) in the background was her visceral mistrust of most Europeans, especially the Germans, and an absolute identification with white power which led her to dismiss Nelson Mandela as a terrorist.
Those times are far off now, but the economic growth of the intervening years for which Thatcher is given credit doesn't seem to have made us any happier. It's not sentimental to suggest that there's a kind of simplicity that we've lost in the last 50-60 years. Since we're all going to be poorer in the coming years (not just the Greeks) , why don't we aspire to rediscover it, or rather reinvent it, with the inclusiveness and tolerance of 2010?
