British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met with Queen Elizabeth II earlier today to request the dissolution of Parliament and then promptly called for a national election to take place on May 6.
Brown's Labour Party, in power since 1997, are behind in recent polling, which shows the Conservative Party, led by David Cameron, ready to take power should they win a majority of the seats in the House of Commons next month. However, British law dictates a general election no more than five years from the previous contest, and voters last went to the polls in May of 2005.
Side note: The U.S. would do well to study this election model. One month to campaign vs. the tiresome two-year, reality-TV-esque campaign we go through lately? Americans of all political stripes would love it.
