Well, we have a National Health Service, our government is attempting to legitimise rather than outlaw civil unions for gay men and lesbians, we have two notionally left-wing national newspapers, and a state-funded national television service with a relationship to the government that has been known to end in court. Nobody except the British National Party has made anything of the fact that the leader of our opposition is Jewish, and it doesn't seem to be one of the many things affecting his electability. Our electorate votes in large numbers for a third party, which has among its principles plans to raise taxes and increase social spending, and has the potential to become the party of opposition at the next election. Although the UK has an established Church, the Church of England plays very little part in setting policy and, beyond Tony Blair's personal Christian faith, religion plays a very minor part in setting the political agenda. A politician advancing the beliefs of, say, Tom Delay or Jim DeMint in a UK election would very probably find himself or herself on the losing side. If Tony Blair said the God wanted him to win and do His work, he would very probably find himself on the end of a vote of no confidence. There are no current plans to introduce a draft, which may be a major factor for some of our younger friends. Oh, and foreign nationals do not to my knowledge get fingerprinted as a matter of course on arrival.

On the other hand, we have no immediately viable opposition party, our Home Secretary has a real down on a number of civil liberties and a boner for compulsory ID card, there is a racist and homophobic extreme right that is politically (largely) marginalised but a constant cause of concern, our upper house remains currently unelected, our ethical foreign policy is nothing of the sort and our troops are currently fighting and dying in Iraq, so you pays your money and takes your choice. However, no - I don't think wave-riding is quite accurate, although there are certain authoritarian trends echoed by the administrations of both. Whether you'd want to move here is another matter, and one which I think depends apart from anything else on what happens next.