Author Topic: How the UK government works?  (Read 579 times)

Offline Poesie

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Posts: 240
  • Location: Australia
    • View Profile
Re: How the UK government works?
« on: November 16, 2018, 04:06:23 am »
Curious to see what UK folks have to say on this one.

Australia’s federal (almost typoed that as feral) parliament is based on the Westminster one, though we have an elected state based Senate rather than a House of Lords.

We’re also had quite a turnover of Prime Ministers in recent years to the extent it’s become a joke. We’ve had 7 in ~10 years, I think: Ηoward (election win),  Rudd (election win), Gillard, Rudd, Abbott (election win), Turnbull, Morrison. Noting that Howard was in for 12 years till Rudd won the 2007 election.

We don’t directly elect our PMs, each political party elects a leader. The PM is usually the head of the party in the lower house who has the majority of seats (or negotiates, like Gillard did so well, to form a minority government if there’s a hung parliament). So if the party wants to change leaders mid term, they can do so, thus changing the PM. Once upon a time, who was the PM tended to change only as a result of election wins. But 4 of the last 7 PM changes happened between elections (though Gillard and Turnbull both subsequently retained power after calling elections).

Here’s a cartoon mocking our leadership stability. The players from left to right are Rudd, Gillard, Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-16/matt-goldings-cartoon-at-behind-the-lines-1/10506364