Well,Obama has got to do a World tour to every country to undo all the Anti-American feelings that George W Bush established.
Will he be able to get all countries on his side and give the USA a good name! I doubt it.

Being a social worker whose occupation is not respected nor supported by a labour government, I have rather strong feelings. Our Children's Minister supported a vicious and provocative campaign by the Sun newspaper ultimately leading to an even bigger crisis in staff shortages. Labour are not labour - they do not support or even acknowledge the ordinary person. The development of the new 'underclass' under Labour power speaks volumes. But I agree with Lounge Lizard, under Conservative the situation can only become more dire - my heart sinks.
As for America, Obama provides me with much solace. :-)

My respectful observations as an outsider would be that although to an American there seems to be a great difference between the US political parties, for a European both your parties might be classed as to the right of the political spectrum and what you fear as “socialism” would still be to the right of the political dividing line.

However, to the observer there does seem to be an enormous difference between the haves and the have-nots, the enormously rich and the desperately poor. Similar to a situation that was present in Europe at the start of the First World War.

Maybe what your current administration is doing is trying to improve the lot of the middle class and give the desperately poor hope, while still maintaining the support of the ultra rich. A very delicate balancing act.

This is a personal observation and I stand to be corrected.

Oldun,

I'm with Obama all the way. I don't fear a move to the left of center. Obama's "base" want health care for all, like they do in Canada and the UK. But we're always being warned about the ungodly waiting for surgery and the like in the NHS in the UK. Most of our UK B&B proprietors are very critical of the NHS.

Oldun, very good observations, quite a balancing act. The very heavy straw that upsets the balance is the undue influence of special interests that keep meaningful change from happening. From the outset, Obama has fought the influence of special interest groups. With health care reform, we will see if he has much success.

Anybody voting for labour?

As with all political parties around the world, if they are in power for too long they run out of ideas and start to believe in their own right to govern, forgetting why they were voted in to power in the first place.

After 12 years in government now is the time for change, a few years rest in opposition and a renewal of the ideologies that first created the Labour Party.

For them to stop in power any longer would be to the detriment of the country and the Labour movement.

Yes your right, labour is done, but who should I vote for? they all seem to have their own interests at heart, what about the BNP they seem to have so many good policys, like hanging for murder. pulling out of the EU and stoping the facist left from destroying are culture.

In my humble opinion, regardless of ones political bias, there are only two political parties in the UK sufficiently organised and with the experience to run a country nationally and internationally. All the others are either solo gifted amateurs, appeasers, political theorists, or reactionaries like the BNP. None of these parties (in the short term) would be capable of mounting a serious government capable of running a country.

With the world in its present state of economic and political chaos can the UK afford to experiment with less well organised and membership barren parties?

For the stability of the country, at the present time, there is only a choice between the two major players. If one clearly believes that one has had its day and needs to recuperate, then there is only one other choice left.

Could an improvement to the current never ending story, be to adopt the American model of having fixed terms of office for the elected officials, or the Swiss model of a clear mandate for elected officials, and anything outside that mandate going to referendum?

So by what you are saying I should vote tory?