Yeah, we've been stuck with just two main parties for centuries - as far as I know we have *never* had an elected government that wasn't either labour (left) or tory (right).
But I think this time it might change. We had more than a decade of tory rule in which they proved themselves again and again to be greasy, corrupt, inept hypocrites. So we voted Blair in who has dominated his party and the country's political scene so completely that half the population don't even know the name of the leader of the opposition. Blair revolutionised British politics and pushed it into the 21st century, just as the tories were dragging their party kicking and screaming out of the 19th. The opposition are laughably outdated, mistrusted, disorganised and utterly unelectable.
But now Blair's position is starting to look shaky. The war hasn't done anything to improve his popularity, and he had certain weaknesses anyway. For one thing he has drifted so far right that he might as well *be* the conservative party. All the socialists, communists and various other left-of-centre ists think he has sold out completely. For another, he and his party have had been exposed in sleazy, corrupt scandals (conflict of interests, backhanders etc) just like the tories- one of their main selling points when they were elected was that they weren't as sleazy.
With this loss in confidence in the two major parties, I think Britain is heading for a >2 party system. All the minority parties (greens, nazis, single issue parties, votes-for-chickens parties, save-our-local-pub parties, independent candidates) are doing better and better with every local election and I think the liberals (our third "central" party, now finding itself further left than the right-drifting new-labour "socialists") might even get into downing street one of these days.
And that will be a good thing. It will shake up British politics enormously, and probably herald a more european-style multi-party system (which may not be such a good thing). Hoefully though, the liberals will be so new to government that for a while they'll actually think they're there to represent and work for the electorate rather than line their own pockets with our money.
