.............................................. .* * \ /\ .* O . . .. ..O .. 367 02 Jun 2001 ) ( ') .* O O* o o o o o o o ( / ) * ***O O O O O O O O O \( _)| * O o o.*..o.*..o.*..o. .net "Ticians of Pol" * * O * *. o |\ _,,,---,,_ * * /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_ * * |,4- ) )-,_..;\ ( `'-' by Schoolboy * * '---''(_/--' `-'\_) *mE0w* o *. .......................................* 'Anada is cat-friendly..o*` Oh Jesus, it's General Election time in Britain! June 7th and all I can say is at least it's not as draining as the US election process. There's no trawling around 50 mini-countries begging to be nominated then multi-million $/£ ad campaigns with one side insinuating the other secretly engages in necrophilia. It's all good, clean, low budget, dry, worthy and lifeless fun. It's also a forgone conclusion and includes a variety of parties the US voters would not believe. A couple of things you need to know about all this if you ain't a Brit: Firstly, there are strict rules about how much parties can spend on campaigns. We're talking about 5% what Bush will have spent. They all have the same maximum budget so wealthy candidates/parties don't have an advantage. Also all donations of any notable size have to be declared publicly to legitimise them. Secondly, the country doesn't elect "The Prime Minister" but his party. He happens to be the leader and therefore masthead for the party. The whole process is akin to voting for your senator except that by voting for your senator you also vote for the Prime Minister/President. Thirdly, there has not been a two party system in Britain for over a century. We have three main parties who have all been in power at some time; the Conservatives (the UK's Republicans - Small government, Big on Capitalism), Labour (Sort of Democrats - focus on social justice and helping the poorest) and the Liberal Democrats (formerly the centre party but now a bit of a mish-mash - focus on individual liberty and equality of opportunity). On top of these, however, are a dozen or so tiny parties who get on everyone's nerves because they just fill up the ballot paper with names you're not interested in and try to confuse you by calling themselves things like "the Democratic Liberal Party" or "The Socialist Labour Party". Gits. So, as I say, because budgets are limited and personalities are not the main focus of attention, simply policies, and because Labour are so obviously going to win again the whole bloody thing's going to be very dull but at least not as annoying as the US experience... Or that's what I would have said before the Deputy Prime Minister punched a protester! It was fantastic! The country's second most senior politician was struck by an egg by someone 2 feet away from him so he just turned round and walloped him on the jaw! Imagine if that happened in the US! So it was shown in slow motion like a Daytona car crash for about 36 hours on the news channels, and after it all, the government went further ahead in the polls! The tabloid newspapers called him "Two Jabs" as his previous nickname was Two Jags because of his Ministerial purchase of two Jaguars, considered very extravagant. Only in britain. This is the worst kind of election because you just want to get it overwith. Labour have had a 20 point lead for the last 3 years so it's not going to be a surprise. I love tight elections. I would have been utterly absorbed if something like Bush/Gore had happened here. I was very excited by the last UK election because, although we knew Labour would win, we didn't know by how much and which Tory (Conservative) Member of Parliament (MP) would lose their seat. Also, the nation had been desperate to throw the Tories out of power after 18 years of rapidly declining government. The exciting element of UK elections is that, unlike, your statewide senator elections, our MPs are battling for seats in constituencies with just a few hundred thousand voters. This means a few percentage points of swing from one party to another can create surprise results. These MPs also serve in the cabinet so, despite a government being returned to power, it has still been known for cabinets to suddenly be without the Defense Minister, Home Office Minister or even Deputy Prime Minister! Another bit of spice to add to the mix is that there's always one or two MPs that change party allegiance in any given year. They normally leap from the Conservatives to Labour. I don't see that happen much in the US. Aside from that we still have a chronically outdated democratic system. We still have all motions passed by the House of Commons ratified (or not) by an entirely unelected House of Lords, which, because they are almost entirely of the ruling classes, are so conservative they'd like to make it compulsory to ride the Penny Farthing again. This is being changed slowly but the problem is any reform has to be by changing the law (we have no written constitution) and that means the frigging House of Lords has to ratify it. How many people do you know who would vote to be out of a job or to abolish their own organisation? Sheesh. Then, of course, the Queen is still the head of the Constitution. She is the equivalent of President Bush. She is the head of the armed forces and the head of the Church of England. Unfortunately Henry VIII's run-in with the Pope in the 16th Century saw the melding of Church and State, which still is here. She is, or if not then she was until recently, the richest woman in Britain and possibly the world. But I just don't think this is ever going to change. The desperate instinct of the British to cling on to their imperial past will not allow them to seriously contemplate transforming the monarchy into the kind the Dutch have or the Swedish have. These modern European monarchs have real jobs and live in houses rather than palaces and simply nominally exist to head the constitution and save the rigmarole of electing a President. We sad, pompous Brits don't want to lose the spectacles of Trooping the Colour and royal weddings especially while Spain still have a very glamorous monarchy. In the end, politics, the monarchy, like many other things, are all down to vanity. .................................................................. /\_/\ * ( o.o ) (c) Anada e'zine anada367 by Schoolboy o > ^ < o ********************************************************************