Across the Pond

Good Morning!

I am currently sitting in the Harrisburg Airport waiting for my flight to Detroit (where I have an entirely too long layover) before heading to London. I can't believe I'm here! It is really amazing that I have this opportunity as a undergraduate (p.s. I am now a senior)!! (F&M is awesome!) I'm really nervous, but I also feel confident that I know what I'm talking about, have good questions, and will do okay.

I have plenty of reading to do on the plane-tons of articles about the referendum (from both before and after it happened). Speaking of the referendum, you may be curious about the results. To put it simply, Yes lost and it wasn't even close. Although this doesn't surprise me, I am a bit disappointed because I think it would have been fun to observe such a drastic change (I guess I really am turning into a comparativist). Then again, we are talking about Britain and as one of my articles reminds readers, they like slow evolution as opposed to drastic change. Anyway, the turnout for the vote was around 41% and the last I heard was that No won with about 68% of the vote. Additionally, there were council (local) elections in most of the UK with interesting results. The Lib Dems got slaughtered (even losing in Clegg's district), Labour did well, but surprisingly, the Conservatives also held their own. Most of the backlash seems to be against the Lib Dems and Nick Clegg rather than against the entire coalition government. Perhaps most interesting was the result of the Scottish Parliament elections. The SNP won a majority there and are now talking about having a referendum to separate from the UK! Note to self: keep this in mind for another research project. :)

Well I should get to that reading.... With any luck, my next post will be from LONDON!