While the resolution doesn't call for Mr. Assad to step aside as an earlier Arab League plan does, it backs Mr. Annan's call for the Syrian president to appoint a mediator to negotiate with the opposition, according to British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant.

WSJ: U.N. Agrees to Send Observers to Syria

If that sounds like a list that just about any party or voter could sign up to, he went on to stress his support for the family, his taxation and spending plans and, pointedly, his opposition to the single European currency that mark out clear differences from Labour.

BBC: Analysis

The results mark a return to more traditional politics with the two big parties in opposition to each other and a clear distinction between right and left.

ECONOMIST: Germany��s elections