The current meme in the BP-protecting Tory community, both here and across the ocean, is that President Obama, one of the most corporate-friendly US politicians around today, is an evil Brit-hating Socialist. The wagons are being circled and the propaganda flows like a broken oil well.

I know, I know: David Cameron, the guy who overcame his privileged and cosseted upbringing, is the one who’s actually going to be living at that address. But the man who put Cameron at Number Ten Downing is a Frenchman named Baudoin Prot, the chief executive officer of BNP Paribas, a huge multinational banking firm — and Cameron and the Tories had better do as he says, or he can break them just as he made them.

Since the Conservative Party won the most MPs in the British elections last week, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has sought an alliance with the Tories in high-level talks. But Liberal Dem MPs have not fully endorsed the measure, seeking assurances that their key issues – many of which are at odds with the Conservatives – would get addressed in any power-sharing arrangement. Seeking the advantage, Labour has initiated talks with the Liberal Dems aimed at their own minority government coalition. And Labour leader Gordon Brown has added a new wrinkle to those negotiations by announcing that he will step down as Prime Minister.

Polls are now closed in the United Kingdom, and the UK Guardian published an exit poll indicating that no party won a majority. So, there could be what is called a “hung parliament”–a House of Commons where no one party holds a majority of seats. In many parliamentary systems, this is not an unusual occurrence and results in a coalition government, but in two-party-dominated Britain, this could turn out to be a watershed event.