The decision of the British people in their election today will be crucial to deciding whether or not Britain drags itself out of a mire of debt or heads precipitously towards being a major economy version of Greece. However, when it comes to international negotiations, in two particular areas the US will see little difference no matter who wins. In terms of financial regulation and environmental policy, the outcome of the election is largely irrelevant.

First, we should note that we are in such uncharted territory with a genuine three-way race is so uncertain that we can’t really say who will win tonight. A simple average of the polls puts the Conservatives on 37%, the ruling Labour party on 27% and the insurgent Liberal Democrats on 27% too. The polls are conducted at such a coarse level that we can’t tell whether the surprising swing to the Liberal Democrats is uniform across the country or not. If it is uniform, then the likely effect will be a hung Parliament and probably a constitutional crisis.