As the UK emerges from one of the most lacklustre election campaigns in recent years - an event that failed to excite many in the British electorate, especially the young if one may judge from the number of abstentions - journalists will be eager to issue their post-mortems. They will seek to explain how Tony Blair, returned as prime minister, managed to win his famous third term.

To American ears, that phrase conjures up memories of a really significant third-term victory, that of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 - one that mattered to the US, Britain and indeed the world. By comparison, Mr Blair's victory was founded on overwhelmingly parochial concerns.