US NEWS: Storm Clouds for the U.K.'s Political Order

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There's often a bit of statistical noise in polls after EU elections, says Robert Ford, a professor of political science at the University of Manchester, "but these are quantifiably different. You have four political parties in a dead heat – I've never seen anything like it before."General-election voters have in the past tended to return to supporting either Labour or the Tories, because voting for a third party can seem like a wasted effort in a system inclined toward two-party domination. But with four parties in a virtual tie, "that argument no longer exists," Ford says, because the major parties no longer look unbeatable.