As an American, I was interested to learn that you do not have a Congress in England, but a "Parliament". Also, your political parties have different names than ours. I could not have been more surprised if I had learned that Scotland also has a legislature!
Quick links: NewsBiscuit Home • Chat Room • Writers' Room • Top Ten
Letter from America on your election.
(18 posts) (11 voices)
-
The All New Jeni B
offlineMemberAlthough it does sound less threatening when Americans say, "talking with" rather than our, "talking to".
Posted 3 years ago # -
virtuallywill
offlineMemberMany of us to enjoy congress here in Blighty.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Quaz
offlineMemberOK Rikkor, here's the 101 on UK Democracy.
The Queen is head of state, in theory like a president for life, but she has to do what she's told or she'll get a slap. In practce, the prime minister is more like a president, or least ways has been since Thatcher or Blair. When a govt gets elected they have to ask her if they can run the show then tell the queen what her govt is going to do, and she has to read it out to parliament with a straight face, otherwise she'll get a slap. Quite why the queen puts up with this is beyond me, since she is in ultimate control of the armed forces, the judicery, and owns much of the land, but maybe she has issues about self worth that she needs to work through.
MPs, like congressmen, are elected to parliament. Unlike congressmen they then tend to vote slavishly for their party under threat of never making off the back benches or being deselected if they don't and thus loosing their right to claim expenses for duck houses, trouser presses and to drink 24 hours a day in many bars in the palace of Westminster (you know, tha big building by the Thames with big ben stuck on the side of it).
The house of lords is sort of like an unellected senate full of the decendants of robber barrons or cronies or past monaches, or more frequently cronies of the current govt. Legistlation passed by the house of commons (the MPs elected by us commoners) has to be scrutinised by them to ensure it is no more insane than it needs to be, but they can only send a peice of legislation back twice before it becomes law, no matter how mad (see the poll tax).
Most of them in both houses end up in the pay of special interest groups or just go plain crazy with power, so as you can see it's not that different from the US system apart from the democratic deficit in the house of lords.
Posted 3 years ago # -
Quaz
offlineMemberThanks Rikkor (I did realise that you likely know more about it than I given your background). I just enjoyed the chance to mock the weirdly democratic institutions of this septic isle.
Out of interest, how about a brief Rikkor description of how the US system works? I once read somewhere that the system of Executive, Senate and Congress was designed at independence expressly to make it hard for a federal govt to do anything.
Posted 3 years ago # -
rikkor
offlineMemberJe thanks vous, Quaz. In the US, we are supposed to be a republic. That is, small central government, more immediate state government. Putting six months worth of debate aside, I can state that we are still very much that way. The laws and customs of Tennessee are very different from those of California. But, strangely, we all feel welcome in each other's states and still are vehemently supportive of the US as a whole. For whatever reason, it works.
Posted 3 years ago #
Reply
You must log in to post.