How Uk politics/elections work??

There are some posters from the UK here, right?

Can anyone explain how the PM selection process works?

If I understand correctly what I've read, after May resigned, then her own party members just selected for a potential pool of replacements who they wanted to replace her (vs. say, if an American president resigns and the VP takes their place until the next election) and among those party members they voted for Johnson so now he's PM.

Is that all there is to it? Like, what would stop a well-liked leader from resigning and their party then replacing that leader with a universally disliked leader in their place? (I'm no expert on Johnson--and cannot really determine what the people he ministers over think of him as a whole.)

And at what point would there be a multi-party general election again?

Just trying to get that straight in my brain, as I still don't fully understand Brexit.

Brits don't vote for a prime minister.

They have a general election and the head of the most popular party gets named (by the queen) as the prime minister. If that person resigns, it doesn't affect the seats in the parliament (house of commons). So they retain their majority rule. The most popular party just chooses a new head, and the queen then names him/her PM. 

Same as here in Finland (without the queen part). Except Finns also have a separate president, and presidential elections. Prime minister runs the government and sets policies. President does awkward presidential stuff like meets with royals and declares malls opened (and tweets pop references and tries to buy Greenland).

So they vote for party, not person?

That's wild.

I guess it's not like the US system is any better.

Both seem like they would lead to just utter disenfranchisement of lots of people.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

So they vote for party, not person?

That's wild.

No we don't vote for a party or the prime minister, we vote for our individual member of parliament who is usually aligned to a party (although not always), the party that has the most MP's get to form a government, but unless they have an outright majority they can find it difficult to get anything done.This is the situation at the moment as Johnson needs several their small parties to get his policies through

Brexit is the big one though as he will have people from his own party voting against him if he tries to go no deal Also if your MP joins another party, you don't get another vote, you will now be represented by someone who belongs to the party that you voted against.

Yup, our system is terrible and way more complicated than I have laid out here!

Fucking, Ouch! Democracy is no Utopia, but it worked until this Orange Shite-fuck got elected. Now, even American democracy will be called into question next year. Globally, I see no way out of this.

UNCLE SAXON'S KICKASS CDS wrote:

Fucking, Ouch!  Democracy is no Utopia, but it worked until this Orange Shite-fuck got elected.  Now, even American democracy will be called into question next year.  Globally, I see no way out of this.

With the news of Joe Walsh deciding to primary Trump...I'm curious. I don't even know what I want the outcome of that primary to be. I mean, I guess Bill Weld is already primarying Trump, but I don't really see that going very far, though say a conservative were to win in 2020, Weld would be my choice among these three--he seems like a good guy who I disagree with on things.

But back to Walsh. Man. That dude is possibly worse than Trump on a personal level.

Whenever I see a British political gathering on TV in their “House of Commons” (I think that’s what they call it) they look like a bunch of grumps almost yelling at whoever is speaking. From my point of view, it looks crazy. But I’m sure they think American politics is weird too.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

UNCLE SAXON'S KICKASS CDS wrote:

Fucking, Ouch!  Democracy is no Utopia, but it worked until this Orange Shite-fuck got elected.  Now, even American democracy will be called into question next year.  Globally, I see no way out of this.

With the news of Joe Walsh deciding to primary Trump...I'm curious. I don't even know what I want the outcome of that primary to be. I mean, I guess Bill Weld is already primarying Trump, but I don't really see that going very far, though say a conservative were to win in 2020, Weld would be my choice among these three--he seems like a good guy who I disagree with on things.

But back to Walsh. Man. That dude is possibly worse than Trump on a personal level.

I'm not even sure if a challenge will work because, if I understand correctly, some states can skip the primary election if there is a challenge to the incumbent. Maybe I read it wrong in the paper , but South Carolina (or North don't remember which one) can skip the primary and just put the incumbent as winner....

And of course California now has a law that you cannot appear on a ballot unless you release your tax returns. I can see several other states doing this as well.

mikeinfla wrote:

I'm not even sure if a challenge will work because, if I understand correctly, some states can skip the primary election if there is a challenge to the incumbent. Maybe I read it wrong in the paper , but South Carolina (or North don't remember which one) can skip the primary and just put the incumbent as winner....

And of course California now has a law that you cannot appear on a ballot unless you release your tax returns. I can see several other states doing this as well.

That is interesting about states being able to skip the primary. That is also a terrible law (or whatever), no matter the person or party.

I don't even think I'd prefer Joe Walsh to Trump in the event a dem does not win in 2020. Walsh is pretty much the same on all policy aspects as Trump, but minus the Twitter shenanigans and authoritarian tendencies. Which means he would likely be able to effect more of the policy I disagree with. Though Trump, for all his--questionable language, has never had the audacity to drop the N word on Twitter--Walsh has.

The other part is, if Trump demolishes the dude in the primary...I mean, how long would we have to hear about that. Jeez.

Aussie politics are pretty much similar to the British system.  We've gone through 6 or 7 Prime Ministers in the last 8 or 9 years 

I still don't fully understand this whole business, but maybe in the midst of these protests. Corbyn's moment will come.

I doubt it.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I still don't fully understand this whole business, but maybe in the midst of these protests. Corbyn's moment will come.

I doubt it.

The protests are because Johnson is using a loophole to suspend parliament so he can get no deal through, whilst it is constitutionally sound it has never, ever been used for anything like this in our history! From an ethical standpoint it is completely repugnant and pisses over the whole concept of parliamentary democracy.

We are in the midst of absolute madness over here and I'm starting to see my future in Ireland (which will fully disconnect from England, I'm pretty sure that Scotland will do likewise)

If this goes down the way I think it will, you will be getting Boris J in the U.S because there is no way he will be able to stay here (You can keep Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell too )

Boris2008 wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I still don't fully understand this whole business, but maybe in the midst of these protests. Corbyn's moment will come.

I doubt it.

The protests are because Johnson is using a loophole to suspend parliament so he can get no deal through, whilst it is constitutionally sound it has never, ever been used for anything like this in our history! From an ethical standpoint it is completely repugnant and pisses over the whole concept of parliamentary democracy.

Sounds like Johnson and Mitch McConnell are cut from the same cloth. Ha.

Boris2008 wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I still don't fully understand this whole business, but maybe in the midst of these protests. Corbyn's moment will come.

I doubt it.

The protests are because Johnson is using a loophole to suspend parliament so he can get no deal through, whilst it is constitutionally sound it has never, ever been used for anything like this in our history! From an ethical standpoint it is completely repugnant and pisses over the whole concept of parliamentary democracy.

We are in the midst of absolute madness over here and I'm starting to see my future in Ireland (which will fully disconnect from England, I'm pretty sure that Scotland will do likewise)

If this goes down the way I think it will, you will be getting Boris J in the U.S because there is no way he will be able to stay here (You can keep Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell too )

Can you explain that shit?  So Britain voted to the leave the EU.  Why is there such a shitfight about "passing it with no deal"?  The populace voted in favor of Brexit, yes?  Isn't that what Democracy is all about; the will of the people?  What is it I'm missing?

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I still don't fully understand this whole business, but maybe in the midst of these protests. Corbyn's moment will come.

I doubt it.

The protests are because Johnson is using a loophole to suspend parliament so he can get no deal through, whilst it is constitutionally sound it has never, ever been used for anything like this in our history! From an ethical standpoint it is completely repugnant and pisses over the whole concept of parliamentary democracy.

We are in the midst of absolute madness over here and I'm starting to see my future in Ireland (which will fully disconnect from England, I'm pretty sure that Scotland will do likewise)

If this goes down the way I think it will, you will be getting Boris J in the U.S because there is no way he will be able to stay here (You can keep Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell too )

Can you explain that shit?  So Britain voted to the leave the EU.  Why is there such a shitfight about "passing it with no deal"?  The populace voted in favor of Brexit, yes?  Isn't that what Democracy is all about; the will of the people?  What is it I'm missing?

What you are missing is that the populace were completely lied to about what it would all mean. Not little white lies, great big dirty black ones! The vote was very close and driven by fears about immigration (which is mostly a result of UK and NOT E.U policy) but no-one was crazy enough to want to leave on WTO terms, they were told that the EU would come crawling along to give us a better deal but this was never going to happen because the UK already had a spectacular deal from the EU (Which was the only good thing Margret Thatcher ever did) So now we have gone from 'We'll get £300 million a week that we give the EU and spend it on the NHS to Yeah brexit is going to cost Billions and we will have to carve up the NHS in order to get a trade deal with Trump!

The powers that be have had three years to obey the will of the people and make proper preparations for the UK's exit (which I still think would have been bad but I would have lived with it because that what the majority want) but we are absolutely nowhere with our preparations, we are about to lose our biggest trade partner(by a mile) the alternative deals haven't materialised and even if we make deals with the U.S, China, India etc... we will get utterly bent over as they know that we are desperate (a bit like buying jewellery from a crackhead, they will accept what's on offer because they need to)

On top of that no deal leaves us in breach of laws regarding the borders on the island of Ireland. Not just policy but laws that we came up with and have brought peace to Northern Ireland. It's a betrayal of everyone who trusted the English and can only ever have dire consequences for the place that half of my family live.

The ports will be a mess as again our preparations are pathetic and as a result firms are already fleeing as they can't guarantee continuity for their supply chain.

The government are privately admitting that there may be severe shortages of medicines so people will actually die as a result of the total mess we have made of this.

If you want more I can happily continue but the thing that pisses me off is that I have asked people who voted for Brexit why they think it will be a good idea and to give me a solid benefit that will come of it and not one of them can name one. When Farage was challenged on his bullshit and told that the facts did not match his rhetoric he actually said that people don't care about facts they just want Brexit!!

So fuck it. If this is the will of the people then so be it, but if anyone thinks I'm going to down with the sinking ship they are sorely mistaken. I work for a global company and have a dual nationality passport

Boris2008 wrote:

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I still don't fully understand this whole business, but maybe in the midst of these protests. Corbyn's moment will come.

I doubt it.

The protests are because Johnson is using a loophole to suspend parliament so he can get no deal through, whilst it is constitutionally sound it has never, ever been used for anything like this in our history! From an ethical standpoint it is completely repugnant and pisses over the whole concept of parliamentary democracy.

We are in the midst of absolute madness over here and I'm starting to see my future in Ireland (which will fully disconnect from England, I'm pretty sure that Scotland will do likewise)

If this goes down the way I think it will, you will be getting Boris J in the U.S because there is no way he will be able to stay here (You can keep Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell too )

Can you explain that shit?  So Britain voted to the leave the EU.  Why is there such a shitfight about "passing it with no deal"?  The populace voted in favor of Brexit, yes?  Isn't that what Democracy is all about; the will of the people?  What is it I'm missing?

What you are missing is that the populace were completely lied to about what it would all mean. Not little white lies, great big dirty black ones! The vote was very close and driven by fears about immigration (which is mostly a result of UK and NOT E.U policy) but no-one was crazy enough to want to leave on WTO terms, they were told that the EU would come crawling along to give us a better deal but this was never going to happen because the UK already had a spectacular deal from the EU (Which was the only good thing Margret Thatcher ever did) So now we have gone from 'We'll get £300 million a week that we give the EU and spend it on the NHS to Yeah brexit is going to cost Billions and we will have to carve up the NHS in order to get a trade deal with Trump!

Stoking fears over immigration, lying about who will be paying for what and botching beneficial deals with no alternative to back things up with...

That all sounds familiar, ha.

So what does it mean now that Johnson's party has lost the parliament majority?

ZombieHavoc wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

SideShowDisaSter wrote:

Boris2008 wrote:

ZombieHavoc wrote:

I still don't fully understand this whole business, but maybe in the midst of these protests. Corbyn's moment will come.

I doubt it.

The protests are because Johnson is using a loophole to suspend parliament so he can get no deal through, whilst it is constitutionally sound it has never, ever been used for anything like this in our history! From an ethical standpoint it is completely repugnant and pisses over the whole concept of parliamentary democracy.

We are in the midst of absolute madness over here and I'm starting to see my future in Ireland (which will fully disconnect from England, I'm pretty sure that Scotland will do likewise)

If this goes down the way I think it will, you will be getting Boris J in the U.S because there is no way he will be able to stay here (You can keep Piers Morgan and Simon Cowell too )

Can you explain that shit?  So Britain voted to the leave the EU.  Why is there such a shitfight about "passing it with no deal"?  The populace voted in favor of Brexit, yes?  Isn't that what Democracy is all about; the will of the people?  What is it I'm missing?

What you are missing is that the populace were completely lied to about what it would all mean. Not little white lies, great big dirty black ones! The vote was very close and driven by fears about immigration (which is mostly a result of UK and NOT E.U policy) but no-one was crazy enough to want to leave on WTO terms, they were told that the EU would come crawling along to give us a better deal but this was never going to happen because the UK already had a spectacular deal from the EU (Which was the only good thing Margret Thatcher ever did) So now we have gone from 'We'll get £300 million a week that we give the EU and spend it on the NHS to Yeah brexit is going to cost Billions and we will have to carve up the NHS in order to get a trade deal with Trump!

Stoking fears over immigration, lying about who will be paying for what and botching beneficial deals with no alternative to back things up with...

That all sounds familiar, ha.

So what does it mean now that Johnson's party has lost the parliament majority?

Who knows a this point. Parliament are forcing a law to stop him going ahead with no deal and he is trying to force a general election which they are refusing until this law passes. Some of the stuff from both sides of the argument is incredible and I actually think this makes no deal even more likely.

I think this will mean a general election soon but who knows the result?

Boris2008 wrote:

I think this will mean a general election soon but who knows the result?

Anarchy in the UK.

Tough week for Boris and Trump.