British Billy tries to explain the U.K. General Election.

  • Published
  • By British Billy
  • 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England --  Although I do not consider myself a political animal, it has come to my notice that the U.K. will have an opportunity on May 6 to elect a new government. Politicians are all over the news, sporting rosettes and ties of various hues, debating, promising, cajoling.

Elections in the U.K. do not come around predictably every four years, as do presidential elections in the U.S., and we do not elect our Prime Minister, as the U.S. does its president.

The British parliament has no minimum length, but its maximum life span is five years. The Prime Minister is able to decide when he would like to call an election and then has to go and ask the reigning monarch to agree and issue a royal proclamation. So, on April 6, Gordon Brown, our current prime minister and leader of the Labour Party, popped along to see the Queen. Evidently, she was happy to grant his request and Parliament was duly dissolved on April 12.

Quite a few of my American chums have been surprised to learn we do not elect our prime ministers. On the worldwide political stage, presidents and prime ministers seem to often be regarded as the same. However, it is usually the case in the U.K. that the leader of the political party that has gained a majority of the seats in the House of Commons (the lower House of Parliament) at a general election, is invited by the monarch to form a government. If he is successful in doing so, he then becomes the Prime Minister and  the head of the political government of the whole United Kingdom.

As we live in a democratic country, we all have a say in how the country is run. Of course, as a cat, I am unable to vote, but nevertheless, I take an active interest. The voting public elects local Members of Parliament  to represent their views in the House of Commons. This part of Parliament has the greatest political power. The second part of Parliament is the House of Lords, whose unelected members complement the work of the House of Commons. The third and final part of Parliament is the monarch, our Queen, who signs the laws that Parliament votes for.

To give the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland more say over what happens in their countries, the U.K. Parliament has devolved (or given away) some of its powers to other national and regional bodies. In Scotland, for example, there is the Scottish Parliament which has elected members who make some decisions for Scotland. Wales and Northern Ireland have their own assemblies and there is also a London Assembly.

Each Member of Parliament is elected separately by the 'first-past-the-post' voting system and individual constituencies can vary markedly from overall voting trends. Constituencies will have a number of different candidates standing for election from a variety of political parties. The largest ones are the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats, whose party colours are blue, red and gold respectively. We have no donkeys or elephants representing our parties as you do in the U.S.

There are a number of candidates who wish to stand as 'independents', as well as some rather unusual political groups, such as the Church of the Militant Elvis and Bus-Pass Elvis Party, and the ever-resilient Monster Raving Loony Party, which was founded more than a quarter of a century ago by the late Screaming Lord Sutch, and is now led by Alan "Howlin Laud" Hope.

Our British gift for eccentricity has given birth to some interesting manifesto pledges from some of these 'fringe' parties. One that caught my eye was that chewing gum should be collected from pavements and used to fill potholes in the road. This is such a simple idea which encapsulates the spirit of recycling. Another practical suggestion is that all socks should have to be sold in packs of three as a precaution against losing one of them.

Of course, general elections are very important occasions, but we Brits have always had a tendency to self-deprecation. A little light relief is necessary when such weighty rhetoric seems to dominate the media.

Whichever political party forms the new government, and whoever is to be our next prime minister, I can assure you that I will continue to work tirelessly to keep my nearest and dearest ones safe and rodent-free. I may be unelected, but I am pretty sure I will be running things around my neck of the woods for quite a while to come.