UK politics thread – meet the new boss, same as the old boss

[Anonymous X]

Full on points to the UK journalists. My favorite question was, "So why do YOU get to stay on then?"

Absolutely correct. Why the hell are you even still there?

I think the plotters (as in most Tory MPs, by now) can’t yet agree on a single “unity” leader. Also… Replacing a party leader/prime minister that quickly after another, they’ll find it hard to justify not holding an early general election in those circumstances.

 

[wonko the sane?]

The prime minister resigned, the reason doesn't really matter: that should pretty much an automatic election as the peoples chosen leader (YMMV.) has fucked off.

 

[Pocket]

Is that what Canada does in a situation like this? I'm actually curious which countries with parliamentary systems do.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I have no idea: I can't recall a prime minister resigning. They used to scream "no confidence" and force elections.

 

[Anonymous X]

Technically, changing a prime minister / premier / leader of the governing party during a parliamentary term in the Westminster system is acceptable, as you’re voting for a party (or coalition of parties), not a specific leader. However, I can see why people are calling for an early general election election here, as many of Truss’ policies contradict the Tories’ 2019 electoral manifesto.

 

[Pocket]

Yeah, also I don't know if I'd be on board with a head of state's resignation meaning the entire legislature has to prematurely end their terms of office. Emergency elections would make perfect sense in a country like the US where the head of state is elected separately from everyone else—and we almost ended up with that system, except John Tyler had enough pull to prevent it from happening. It was the original presidential power grab, really.

 

[abates]

Seems very much like a conflict of interest that the only one who can call an early election is the PM, who has a vested interest in not calling one if the results are obviously not going to be favourable for their party.

Works the same way here, of course.

 

[Pocket]

Well yeah. It's definitely one of those rules that's not only extremely open to abuse, it seems to have no practical use except to be abused.

 

[Anonymous X]

Seems very much like a conflict of interest that the only one who can call an early election is the PM, who has a vested interest in not calling one if the results are obviously not going to be favourable for their party.

Works the same way here, of course.

That’s one problem I have specifically with the Westminster style of parliamentary system, the incumbent leader can call snap elections if it favours their party, even if they maintain a majority of confidence.

(The Tory/LibDem coalition did enact the Fixed Term Parliaments Act to ‘fix’ that issue, but it was a badly written law also open to abuse. And the Tories abolished it as soon as they led a single party majority government.)

 

[Anonymous X]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1581940552202743809

I don’t believe for a second that an actual general election would yield such results, and usual caveats about polling methodology, but it’s very telling how quickly opinions have changed – even earlier this year it looked like we were going to be stuck with eternal Tory governments.

 

[Pocket]

Wait, wait, 50.6% of the vote means 80.3% of the seats? Did y'all yet your own Electoral College when I wasn't looking?

 

[wonko the sane?]

Nope, just the spread in the voting districts. Under the british/canadian system, you can have less votes, but what matters is how many districts you take. Same thing happened in quebecs last election: the caq got less votes than last time, but because of how the opposition votes were spread they wound up with more districts and consequently more seats in the provincial assembly.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Sounds like the Electoral College.

 

[NovaSaber]

Or gerrymandering.

 

[abates]

It is very much like that, and it's why NZ moved to a proportional system year back.

 

[Anonymous X]

It is very much like that, and it's why NZ moved to a proportional system year back.

We have proportional voting for the Scottish, Welsh and Northern Ireland parliaments,* but not the House of Commons. Unfortunately, neither of the two big parties will support electoral reform for UK-wide elections as it suits them for the status quo to continue.

* plus for European Union elections, when we could vote in those…

 

[Anonymous X]

Home Secretary Suella “Cruella” Braverman has just been fired from the government, but after passing draconian legislation that almost entirely bans protests.

 

[Ironbite4]

Keep in mind she got sacked because she had sensitive info on her phone she was leaking.

Ironbite-sound familiar?

 

[wonko the sane?]

Breaking news on the morning news program: liz truss resigns as leader of the tories... wait, does that means she's not prime minister anymore?

 

[Anonymous X]

Breaking news on the morning news program: liz truss resigns as leader of the tories... wait, does that means she's not prime minister anymore?

She’s still technically PM in caretaker capacity until the Tories vote for a new leader.