I am not English as many of you know, but I have been living in UK for the best part of 13 years now. I think the current political climate in UK needs some reflection. The Labour party is crumbling down. On that point, I just want to digress for a second, Tony Blair timing has always amazed me. Within 12 months of him living, the world seems to come to an end (political, economical social crises of unprecedented scale happened as soon as he left the PM job), not I cannot understand how that happened…. I cannot believe it is simply luck. I think, he just felt that things were not going to go his way any longer and he left (a bit like the great investors who get out just at the right time, they can “sense” the environment and profit from it). Now enough with the digression
I really take objection (even though I cannot vote) to have a PM who is not elected and claims to be the right man for the job, on absolutely no grounds. I also think that the “victory|” of parties like the BNP should really give politicians some food for thoughts. How bad can things be, if people do vote for the BNP. I guess UK would need an Obama, a figure who is capable to voice the people concerns, express and connect, in other words a good story tellers, who tells story people want to listen to…. The issue with UK politics is that the stories are simply not worth listening to…. Let’s hope somebody will come out of the crisis to help UK out of the current hole it is in (often crisis are very good in this….)
Luca
Comments (2)
Thanks Luca! I enjoyed reading your posts. I definitely understand your reservations about personal disclosure when blogging as I felt the same when I tried for the first time (actually as a guest blogger before I worked for CE). Hopefully you can take a slot again as a guest blogger in the future and explore a bit further.
Cheers,
Michael
Posted by Michael Cheveldave | June 16, 2009 3:47 PM
Posted on June 16, 2009 15:47
Agree Tony Blair appears(ed) to have an instinct for political 'timing'!
However I think you need to understand more about the UK's parliamentary political system before making statements about 'a PM who is not elected'.
- The UK's electorate do not elect the Prime Minister, despite our commentariat's statements about the office becoming more presidential in character.
- The PM is usually (according to our uncodified constitution) selected by the largest party (usually with a working majority on their own, or in coalition). It is up to the internal voting system of said party as to how they go about selecting their leader (who can become PM in the event of them 'winning' a FPTP general election).
- Changing a sitting PM without a triggering a general election is not uncommon in the past 35 years of UK parliamentary history. In the late 70's it was Wilson for Callaghan. In 1990 it was Thatcher resigning for Major, and in 2007 it was Blair resigning for Brown.
So speaking factually, Brown isn't unelected. He's an elected member of parliament, he was also elected by the Labour party as their leader after Blair resigned.
If you mean he hasn't been approved by the national electorate of the UK in a general election. Then yes, that's true - however the UK doesn't officially vote for a PM. They/we vote for a party.
Posted by Steve Pringle | June 22, 2009 1:50 PM
Posted on June 22, 2009 13:50