Dateline: New York. As a briefly-repatriated expat, I expected to be largely spared the onslaught of election coverage here in the UK. However, I woke up this morning to hear about a small explosion outside the British Consulate in New York. This hits home — the consulate is on Third Avenue and 52d Street, about a city block from where my father works in New York.

Blair is largely beloved by Americans, to the extent that he’s know at all: he “stands shoulder-to-shoulder” with Bush on the war(s) on terror and Saddam, assuaging neocons and those won over by the fear factor, and yet he’s still Labour enough to please the Democrats, if not the true lefties.

Out in the blogosphere (which has been much less active than in the US elections), Kos says maybe you should even vote for the Tories, but Samizdata says no, you shouldn’t.