John Cassidy counters Niall Ferguson:
In my opinion, Britain’s long-term economic difficulties have been overstated, and its political firmament has been misinterpreted. With an economic recovery already under way, I expect the fiscal arithmetic to steadily improve, and the scare stories about Britain turning into Greece to be discredited. From a political perspective, today’s victor...will enter office with the priceless asset of diminished expectations. With a budget deficit of more than ten per cent of G.D.P., most Britons accept the need fiscal retrenchment, which, in any case, can be blamed on Gordon Brown’s financial mismanagement. By 2015, when the next scheduled election is due, most of the harsh measures will have been taken, the economic outlook is likely to be much brighter, and the incumbent party will be well-placed for reëlection. (If there is a hung parliament, things get a bit more complicated, with another election likely later this year or early next. But I would still expect the party that emerges as the victor of that contest to be reëlected in 2015.)