UK's election campaign stops at Dover

Afghanistan, Iran, the Middle East peace process and al Qa'eda in Yemen figure less highly in election debates than ties with US and Europe.

LONDON // There are only two days left before people go to the polls in Britain, yet the big issues confronting the world have barely featured during the campaign. Even in the second of the three televised debates involving the party leaders, which was supposed to concentrate on foreign policy, the discussion was dominated by the internal affairs of the European Union.

Afghanistan (where the UK has 10,000 troops and a death toll approaching 300), Iran's nuclear ambitions, peace between Israel and the Palestinians and even the threat posed by al Qa'eda terrorists in Yemen have barely merited a passing nod from the candidates. While domestic policies inevitably take centre stage in a peacetime election campaign, the parties' divisions on global issues have traditionally been important, if secondary, concerns to an electorate generally attributed to have a more informed view of the world than those in many other countries.

In the last parliamentary election, for instance, the opposition to the invasion of Iraq by the Liberal Democrats - the only major party to oppose the war - was credited with taking tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, away from Tony Blair's ruling Labour Party. Similarly, Margaret Thatcher's poll ratings in 1982 were among the lowest ever recorded until she authorised the retaking of the Falklands Islands. She romped home in the ensuing election.

This time, though, foreign policy has attracted minimal debate, perhaps because of the superficial similarities of all three parties' attitudes towards global affairs. All, for example, favour much tougher sanctions against Iran to prevent it acquiring nuclear weapons. All also favour a two-state solution with the Palestinians, with the Conservatives more friendly towards Israel and the Liberal Democrats more sympathetic towards the Palestinians.

Even on Afghanistan, there is virtual unanimity among the major parties about the righteousness of Britain's mission there, with only the likes of the Scottish Nationalists and the far-right British National Party demanding an immediate pullout of troops. But while there is apparent agreement among the "big three" on Afghanistan, Alex Neill, the head of the Asia programme at the Royal United Services Institute, a London-based think tank on international affairs, believes that could change after Thursday's vote.

"I think that there will be a refocusing of how the UK can operate within Afghanistan, but also there will be some serious questions about whether or not the UK can maintain this expeditionary role, potentially punching above its weight," he said. Mohammad Kamaali, a UK board member of the Campaign against Military Action and Sanctions against Iran, said he is concerned that the parties' stance towards Iran could lead to armed conflict. "In terms of foreign policy where Iran comes in, all three parties are following the same interventionist policies which gave us the Iraq war, the wars in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the world," he said.

"I think on that even the Liberal Democrats - despite being perceived as softer - are following the same underlying policies. "On the other hand, they are kind of worried of course that in the face of opponents such as the Conservatives they do not want to be seen as weak." During the TV debate, the prime minister, Gordon Brown, told Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader who wants to halve Britain's nuclear weapons stockpile, to "get real" to the dangers posed faced by countries such as Iran and North Korea.

Mr Clegg was also attacked by Mr Brown for being "anti-American", a charge rebutted by the Lib Dem leader while making it clear that he wanted the UK to follow a more independent line in its dealings with Washington. However, it is the UK's awkward relationship with the rest of Europe that has been the only foreign affairs issue to figure to any extent in the campaign. David Cameron's Conservatives are by far the most Euro-sceptic party and he is pledging to restrict the influence of the EU on Britain. In his words, he wants the UK "to be in Europe but not run by Europe".

Both Labour and the LibDems accuse the Tories of wanting to isolate Britain and cite the Tories' withdrawal from the main centre-right bloc in the European Parliament, which includes the ruling parties of Germany, France and Italy. Instead, the Conservatives' MEPs have formed an alliance with an anti-federalist grouping that includes far-right parties in Central and Eastern Europe. "David [Cameron] is anti-European, Nick [Clegg] is anti-American and both are out of touch with reality," Mr Brown said.

Unfortunately for the prime minister, though, the latest opinion polls indicate that both are more in touch with the voters than Mr Brown. [e-mail]