h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

gordy can hang on untill the queens speech, if he is bloodyminded enough to

then after the speech the vote on it would be seen as a vote of no confidence and if/when he lost it he would be out on his ear

then Liz II would invite dave to try to form a government

The Lib Dems have more in common with Labour, but I thought one of the main goals of both Libs and Cons was to show Mr. Brown the door. I wish we would see *real* third party power like this in the States!

When did England get a constitution? I thought your government was cobbled together with continuity and the body of law.

we don't have a written constitution, like the US, we have tradition, continuity and a body of law along with a royal family and monarch as head of state

Just because it's not written down, doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

We DO have a constitution, in the form of 1000 years of precedent, mainly.

I think it's because of the monarchy bit. Until the queen gets his resignation (or dismisses him), GB in in charge. It's her gift is the PMship. So at some point she gets him in and asks, can you form a government, and if he says yes, the cons don't get a look in. At least until it became ubundently clear that it wasn't working. Even so, unless he resigns or she dismisses him, technically he, or some other labour leader are in, I think, and our votes really have nothing to do with it.

This is an aspect which the media do not seem very keen to highlight, although the beeb was getting a bit excited about postulating all the ways the queen might be forced to get involved (and thus precipitate the end of the monarchy) the other day.

Of course, in practice... but then there Brown still is...

And what I've just outlined would be the precedent. Apart from the 1970s, the last time the government was so hung, bas in the 30s and the king did get involved.

True, but if the non-elected Queen got involved in the elected process, people are more likely to get angry at that than they were in the 30s.

Can't say I would though - she has a good head on her shoulders and good advisors. I trust her over polititians, if I'm honest.

FG, I'd love to have a viable third party, but I don't expect to live to see it happen. I'm so sick of the straight party-line votes. I want my representatives to do what's best for their constituents, not what's best for the party. If Obama made a public announcement that he liked the smell of apples baking in the oven, the Republicans to a person would swear that baking apples stink. They vote like a herd of mindless sheep.

Thankfully we don't have quite as much of that as you, Hypatia. I try not to read about US politics for that exact reason. It ends up getting me angry over the stupidity of it all.



There's something that I don't understand about the UK system. I vote for my local representative, based on how good they are and how much they represent my views. At the same time, I am expected to vote for the party who has the policies I most agree with.

What if my local party candidate is appalling? What if I like a local candidate but dislike their party (as has happened to me before)? How am I supposed to decide?

It seems strange to me to merge these completely different functions. But then, I can't think of a better way to do it either.

Bye bye Gordon - at least he had plenty of time to get his packing done and hide prawns behind the radiators.

Oh, has he gone?

*Clicks news.google.co.uk*

Sort of, one way or another. Nothing decided though...

*dances surreptitiously on his political grave*

That's cheered me up immensely. But curiouser and curiouser: it seems like it might be a flip-flop to Lib-Lab.

"Mr Brown announced his intention to quit in a statement in Downing St in which he also said his party was to start formal talks with the Lib Dems."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/8672859.stm

This is even better than the fuel crisis.

(I wonder how many knives there were in his back by the time he finally agreed to leave - more like killing Rasputin than Ceaser, I should think).

Does that mean that there's going to be a by-election to replace Brown and that the Labour Party will pick a new leader, and that new leader might possibly lead a coalition??

Brown's free to remain as an MP, but the labour party will elect a new leader who, should Labour be able to cobble together a majority, would become PM.

How Many ways to get what you want
I use the best I use the rest
I use the enemy I use anarchy cos I

I wanna BE anarchy !
THE ONLY WAY TO BE !

Blimey, this is the most entertaining election we have had fo a generation.

Very quickly cos not supposed to be here:

Yes, ministers of state are still ministers of state even if they are no longer MPs. There was one on Radio 4 at the weekend, rather peeved about it cos she had intended to retire.

I vote for the person in the local election and the party for the national election. My district councillor is a good, solid councillor, who works hard both for the district and for his constituents, and I think it would be hard to find a better bloke for the job. It's just unfortunate he's a tory.

Mol

For local elections I tend to go mainly on the person's address - highest priority is people who actually live here, amazing how many turn up on the ballot papers who live miles away, and sometimes in a different county. Then if they live in the places where you won't get much change from 1.5 million for a house then I tend to assume they probably aren't going to have the same kind of issues as normal families and are unlikely to have to face the same consequences of policy decisions. Other disqualifying factors include single issue candidates who are eg. trying to get into power solely in order to have the speed hump in their road removed, obvious nutters, racists etc.

I vote for the party nationally, for all the good it does me here in the tory heartlands.

Here and there I've voted for a Republican, a Green, an Independent, but usually I vote Democrat.