I think there are about 55 seats and the SNP are predicted to win about 50. Labour normally get around 40 Scottish seats so I think the SNP surge is a bit annoying for them!
I don't think David Cameron is bothered about being PM and would like to do something else. Unlike Blair, Brown Thacher etc who loved the job and probably worked 17 hours a day at it.
Well, last time, it meant both Tories and Lib Dems in the cabinet, a Tory prime minister and a Lib Dem deputy prime minister. But it looks like the Tories have an overall majority this time.
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig
The Liberal Democrats went down from 57 seat to 8 seats.
I'm a but depressed that he Conservatives have a majority as i was looking forward to parties having to work together. I hope th Conservatives don't go too loony.
I'm not an expert on US politics, but doesn't the President sometimes appoint people from other parties to be in his cabinet?
Traditionally, the leader of the party with the most seats becomes prime minister, and the leader of the second largest party becomes leader of the opposition. There is no actual law to say that this is the case, but it's so ingrained that it would be hard to imagine it done any differently. Party leaders are usually chosen by members of the party, though the exact procedure varies from party to party.
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig
So it'd be like Obama wanted to be in charge but he couldn't run for president or whatever he could be leader of the party and if the people wanted him they could vote for the democrat candidates for senate and Congress and if enough were won he'd be president, if it was close he could work with the Green Party / who ever to make a majority?
It's hard to draw direct parallels with America, because it's the only major democracy where the head of state and head of government are the same person. Most republics have a president and a prime minister. Constitutional monarchies like Britain have a king or queen and a prime minister.
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig
The part I like is the forming a government and having to work with opposition . It sounds d**n fair to me and if we did do it here both our parties would go nuts .
Of course in a blow out you are as screwed as we are. Bush & Obama didn't have to work with opposition to get their way
Omega wrote:The part I like is the forming a government and having to work with opposition . It sounds d**n fair to me and if we did do it here both our parties would go nuts .
Of course in a blow out you are as screwed as we are. Bush & Obama didn't have to work with opposition to get their way
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I find the US system confusing as you have the President, House of Reps., senate, Governors, state assemblies, state senates, mayors - I don't know which has which powers.
Omega wrote:I'd assume Parliament is similar to congress. You have towns and mayors too. What do you do for states and governors?
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Scotland and Wales have their own legislatures, but England has no intermediate level between the county and the national parliament at Westminster. Some say that an English parliament is the solution, but I can't think of any other country with a federal system of government where a single state contains 85% of the nation's population. The party I belong to, the Wessex Regionalists, campaigns for a regional parliament for an 8-county region with a population roughly the size of Greater London's. Or for Americans, Wessex is similar in both area and population to Maryland.
"He's the one that doesn't smile" - Queen Elizabeth II on Daniel Craig
So Wales and Scotland are closer to what we think of as states, the rest of the country has no bigger local government than cities.?
It was only colonies of GB that got governors and territories closer to what we think of as states.
I see how this all is confusing, if your outside looking at the usa, all these names of senators and govoners, the state and city leaders come up in political news as important people who don't translate to other forms of governance around the world.
So in GB it is like this
Monarchy (as a figure head essentially)
PM (who run the country more like a presidential figure)
Parliament
City and towns
Wales and Scotland governing themselves under the GB government .
Here we have federal government, state government (essentially mini Feds ), county, city making up local government .
Omega wrote:So Wales and Scotland are closer to what we think of as states, the rest of the country has no bigger local government than cities.?
It was only colonies of GB that got governors and territories closer to what we think of as states.
I see how this all is confusing, if your outside looking at the usa, all these names of senators and govoners, the state and city leaders come up in political news as important people who don't translate to other forms of governance around the world.
So in GB it is like this
Monarchy (as a figure head essentially)
PM (who run the country more like a presidential figure)
Parliament
City and towns
Wales and Scotland governing themselves under the GB government .
Here we have federal government, state government (essentially mini Feds ), county, city making up local government .
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The US, Canada and Australia were able to set up a federal system from scratch, but the British system has just evolved and is a mess. Also we have the House of Lords (our Senate) which is unelected and has about 2000 people in it with the government always appointing more to get more support.
Also the UK is in the European Union which has it's own parliament and government.
