UK Election

The United Kingdom's parliamentary system of government began in 1952 and is similar to other countries' political systems. As well as being representative democracy, there are also different forms of parliamentary voting. It is currently one of the most prominent democracies in the world. (The House of Commons or 'House Of Lords')

Each Prime Minister serves 2 terms, but they are often elected by a majority vote. In each term there is an expectation to be reappointed. Once re-elected, their responsibilities are continued. To become prime minister requires a 4/5 majority in the House of Commons. It means that even if you were to lose the election, it will not stop your successor from becoming president of the House of Commons. However, a party can block any attempts at another seat; such as winning the Conservative candidate's seat by only 1 vote and losing 2 votes.

The election is often used as a way of creating short term stability. For example, the election of 2016 saw Boris Johnson as leader of the Conservatives, while David Cameron lost the general election. This helped him achieve a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives. But this is never a guarantee of long term stability. Even some politicians have been defeated in recent elections. A few examples include ex-leadership battle between Theresa May and Boris Johnson, Tony Blair's victory over Nick Clegg and former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, and Jeremy Corbyn's defeat in last year's election.

The main constitutional body in charge of parliamentary business is called the house of commons ("House of Commons") and is headed by Sir Henry VIII who became king when his wife became queen in 1558. (The Speaker of the House of Commons is chosen by a process called bicameral legislature)

The current Government of the UK consists of 44 MPs elected by each electoral district (each constituency holds 4 members). The Westminster Council is split across 8 committees. With 48 seats, the biggest opposition to the Government comes from the Conservatives in the House of Lords and the smallest is the Liberal Democrats. These three parties had put up candidates but did not win enough votes to gain a quorum for the final ballot. Also, there are 29 non-affiliated smaller parties such as the Scottish National Party and One Green MP, who do not have a seat in the House of Commons.

The Cabinet has 13 ministers and 7 of these ministers were elected with a majority of more than 50% of the overall votes. There are a lot of changes made to the cabinet as a result of population growth. Therefore, this also makes it easier to reshuffle people out of office quickly. Most of the new ministers come from working backgrounds such as politics. Only 6 newly elected women also took on the role of Deputy Secretary of State. This was mainly due to the lack of qualified female representation and the fact that many people have worked in politics. In addition, all new ministers have been appointed since October 2010 so that they can work out any problems with previous ones. Only 10 of the Ministers are British citizens, so they are not subject to pay tax or benefits rules. Many of them have family links to politicians so also become dependent upon political patronage. (The Prime Minister's postholder's fund is worth £500,000 a year)

Political parties in Britain do not always run as democratic units, they are more run on a national basis. Each party runs its own leadership, and a party with no party structure usually won seats in the 2017 election even though there wasn't much competition - but it is usually just a safe bet when it comes to elections.

Political parties have a separate budget and expenditure, which is a lot larger than what the central government does. The average amount of money each politician can spend is £5,7 million a year. Because of their large budgets, these parties usually don’t want to go outside of their funding limits, so each member of their party spends as little as possible, so that others can get what they need. This can cost less money in the end than what is available to make a positive difference. So, although I don't think any politics actually works, this is how politics works, at least on paper.