I've been posting a fair bit about politics recently, notably US politics. I think it's time to clarify why I've been doing that.
I have a vote, as a UK citizen resident in Glasgow's West End, to a) choose who I want to lose to George Galloway MP / Sandra White MSP / Bill Miller MEP, b) choose a vaguely-proportional-representation MSP for Scotland, c) entertain the mad fantasy of my vote for anyone other than Labour in the local elections meaning that the non-Labour person will actually get elected. (As it happens, I believe my local councillor is a LibDem now.)
Well, that's what happens when you're a fundamentally Labour voter and you live in a Labour stronghold. (Yes, even though Roy Jenkins got elected in Glasgow Hillhead in the early 1980s. I think boundary changes and Labour reinvigoration / Tory collapse are the major reason why Glasgow seats of any kind are no longer seriously contested.) But enough of the cry-baby stuff. After all, I could be living in Buckinghamshire and facing the prospect of my vote not counting and a Tory always getting in, which would be far worse.
The point is that I vote in the UK, not the US, and my only connection with the US political system is that my wife (blog) is American.
But despite all that, even though I don't get a vote, what American votes do decide to do makes a great difference to me, because I have to work in a world where the US exists. The US's foreign and economic policy has a direct impact on my life in the UK, because of events - what the US decides to do in Iraq, say - but also memes, ideas: if a policy appears to be successful in the US, it's likely to be picked up in the UK, and campaign techniques used in the US tend to surface 2-3 years later in the UK. All things considered, I'd much prefer a Democrat to win in the US, in the same way that I'm a Socialist in France.
As a bonus, the campaign is pretty interesting this time round, especially when you consider the Internet phenomenon that is Howard Dean.
So I'm going to continue to blog about US politics, even though I can't personally do anything about them, because a) every attempt to get the message out helps, b) it's cheap, and c) if there are any Americans reading this blog, I think it's interesting to get a European point of view occasionally.
