NationStates Jolt Archive

To most Americans, British politics can be a tad daunting at times. But do not worry, for I, Foxxinnia, will explain the simple idea of "BRITISH POLITICS"!

Now, the Queen doesn't do shit. Let's just get that out of the way. Everything is run by the Prime Minister. There is a President, but he doesn't do shit either. The Prime Minister is not elected by the people. The people instead vote for their favorite political party, and then whichever party gets the most votes has their people in The House of Commons (which is like Congress, except they're always yelling at each other and anyone off the street can just walk in) vote for who should be the Prime Minister. Now I will explain the many British political parties.


THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d9/Toryparty.jpg

These guys are like the Republicans except they are the British affiliate of the International Democrat Union, which doesn't really make sense, but remember they also drive on the other side of the road in Britain so it makes sense to them. The Conservatives are not in power in Britain unlike America, but they do not care because members of this party are too important for politics. Their leader is
Michael Howard who heads the Shadow Cabinet, which sounds really cool and interesting, but it's just as worthless as the Queen. They currently have 198 members in the House of Commons.

THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/Libdemslogo.png

This party is more like the Democratic party except they don't get all huffy when you call them Liberals. They don't really do much except call the Prime Minister names because of the war. Recently their leader Charles Kennedy was made The Guardian's Hottest Member of Parliament by the English newspaper The Guardian. Besides all that they're pretty boring. Not the people you want to go to a pub with. They have 62 seats in Parliament.

LABOUR PARTY
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/27/Labour_rose_logo.jpg/200px-Labour_rose_logo.jpg

These guys are a centrist party between the other two. They currently hold 356 seat in the House of Commons so they just do whatever the fuck they want. Their leader, Tony Blair, is also the Prime Minister, so when they go to lunch they all like, "I'm going to have lunch with our party leader, and he's also the Prime Minister." They are also known for their dry humor. Their name "Labour" (British for Labor) apparently struck well with the 19 people in Britain who have jobs. The Labour party is mainly known for the fact that their leaders are prone to dying in office.

SHITTY THIRD-PARTIES!
Unlike America, the British allow annoying and worthless "Third-Parties" into Parliament. Their existence is mainly for the disruption of normal affairs and the enjoyment of the three main parties as the Third Parties fight amongst themselves.

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f5/Dup.jpg
These guys are from Northern Ireland which is different from normal Ireland apparently. They don't like another party called Sinn Féin for some reason. It doesn't really matter. They hold a measly 9 seats.

Scottish National Party (SNP)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/69/Snp.jpg
These guys hate England so much they don't want to be a part of the United Kingdom. Their membership relies mainly on the youth, which explains why they only have 6 seats in Parliament.

Sinn Féin
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Sflogo.gif
These guys are from Ireland and somehow they are allowed into the British Parliament. Their political ideology consists of blowing up the Northern Irish. This may explain why the DUP doesn't like them. The British don't like blowing people up so that's why they only have 5 seats.

Plaid Cymru
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/59/Plaid_Cymru_logo.png
This party is known mainly as "Plaid" which is very out of style these days. They are also from Wales which is like Scotland but smaller. They have a cool flag, but that doesn't help them get more than 3 seats in Parliament.

Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/0/01/Sdlp.jpg/200px-Sdlp.jpg
These guys are... Who are these guys? Oh, uhh, these guys are just the Labour party of Northern Ireland, and that's pretty much it. They have 3 seats.

Ulster Unionist Party
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/b/b2/Uup.gif
These guys are Unionists from Northern Ireland and... wait, just look at the Democratic Unionist Party. It's exactly the same. They only have 1 seat, which is good, because these guys are idiots for starting a party that already exists.

Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern
Okay, these guys don't even have a flag.
Besides having a unnecessarily long name their seats don't correspond. They have 1. Which is good, I wouldn't want to call out, "Would Dr Richard Taylor of the Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern representing Wyre Forest please approach the podium," for a bunch of people.

RESPECT
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/5/5b/Respect_logo.png/200px-Respect_logo.png
Their name stands for: Respect, Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade unionism. Not much is know about these guys because they were started last year. They have 1 seat because their guy, George Galloway, was kicked out of Labour and he went to their team.

Now all of you are experts in British Politics. Go get a job at the BBC or something.

I don't really appreciate the "unlike America" comment.

While 3rd party and/or independent candidates don't frequently do well, and most politics on all levels is pretty much run by either the Democrats or the Republicans (which I don't really like), the fact remains that there is currently 1 Independent sitting member in the US House of Representatives, and throughout history, it's not uncommon for there to be independent and/or 3rd party members in the House of Represantatives. There is also currently one independent US Senator.

Additionally, in senate and house of representatives (and equivelant houses of legislature) at the state level, it is common to find 3rd party/independent politicians...

It's a joke, dude. Calm down.

It's a joke, dude. Calm down.
Insulting nonetheless.

And this isn't something I'm particularly insulted by, but American citizens can go watch senate and house sessions too...

Your national Parliament equivalent has 1 indy candidate. In other words you have none, really, what power does he wield? 1 vote out of how many?

Your national Parliament equivalent has 1 indy candidate. In other words you have none, really, what power does he wield? 1 vote out of how many?
That's not the point. The point is that Foxx wrongfully implied that 3rd party and independent candidates are not allowed under the American political system.

Insulting nonetheless.
No sir, your anti-humor attitude not only disgusts me, but it also insults me.

you're not british are you. we don't have a president, unless he's been keeping very quiet or is called Bush. We have the house of commons, where MP's are elected by a first past the post method in many small regions. these MP's are part of a Party or independent. There's a house of Lords too, and i don't know how you get to be a lord, and while I think the house is a good thing to have, and in theory can prevent a dictatorship of the majority, i'm not convinced by teh old peer system which i think is being reduced/phased out, or tonys cronies as its been put, getting in. that would be paople who donate lots of cash to labour. then there's the queen. she has to sign things. in theory she could refuse to, but that just isn't cricket and doesn;t happen. the prime minister is the leader of the party with the majority, labour atm. so that's national level.

the three main partys are new labour, in power atm, tories and lib dems. labour used to be socialists, but new labour is now right of centre, pretty much where the tories used to be. the tories have moved right, and advocate harsher crime and immigration laws. while its hard to actually back up calling their new stance racist, its not very nice. then you have lib dems, who are seen as being the party on the left, but they're really central or just left of centre, its just everyone's buggered off to the right so they look like they're on teh left. there are then smaller parties, like the BNP, which are racist, and George Galloways RESPECT party (passionate anti-war socialist).

we also have local and european elections, but i'm tired. so there you go, ferny's completely unbiased lowdown on the british political system ;) .

That's not the point. The point is that Foxx wrongfully implied that 3rd party and independent candidates are not allowed under the American political system.
The Democrats and the Republicans couldn't give two shits about independents or third parties .

That's not the point. The point is that Foxx wrongfully implied that 3rd party and independent candidates are not allowed under the American political system.
To be perfectly honest, all you're doing now is enforcing the, usually wrong, stereotype that Americans just don't get subtle humour.

but American citizens can go watch senate and house sessions too...
I ment that citizens can just walk right onto the floor. Remember a few months ago? Two guys just ran in?