Pauline
Forums Admin
This is my simple, American-viewpoint, description of the May 2015 election in the UK. If you are a Brit, I apologize in advance for doing this.
We voted by mail, but most people go to their local voting place on Thursday to vote in our national election. We vote for our local MP - Member of Parliament - and the party with the most MPs is in power (sort of). There are 650 MPs in the UK, so 326 or more MPs gives a clear majority, except that some of the Northern Ireland MPs won't sit in Westminster (in protest) so really a party needs a few seats less to be a majority. (Read more about UK elections.)
Our election ballot was very different from those in the US where you vote for President, local politicians, judges, amendments to the constitution, local bonds, dog catcher, etc. Our ballot had a list of candidates (about six) and you marked an X for only one.
Steve and I arrived in the UK in May 2010 on the day of the last election. There was no majority government and it took several days for the right-wing Conservatives to form a coalition with the somewhat left-wing Liberal Democrats and take over the government. Labour has been in charge for many years, mostly under Tony Blair, but in the end it was Gordon Brown who lost for Labour.
Since then we have lived here with the austerity cuts enforced by the Conservatives - cuts to local councils resulting in cuts to local libraries, youth centers, social services, cuts to the NHS (national health service), cuts to taxes at the high end, and a raise in VAT (the tax added to nearly everything that you purchase - it is over 20% now). At one point they were going to start selling off the woodlands but thankfully did a "u-turn" on that.
Now we have the Labour party with Ed Miliband as leader running to take over. You may have guessed that I am a Labour supporter. One problem for Labour is Scotland. They used to vote in many Labour MPs but after the vote last year where they voted to NOT leave the UK, many people jumped from the Scottish Labour party to the SNP (Scottish National Party) who had brought them the independence vote. In Scotland, Labour is battling it out with the SNP for seats, but after the election the SNP is likely to support Labour to form a government (no coalition, or so Labour says).
The polls show Labour and the Conservatives very close, but with neither winning a clear majority. It looks now like the Conservatives will win more seats which means they could do a could do a coalition again with the Lib Dems. Or some more interesting combination of everyone but the Conservatives and UKip (our new very right-wing party) could happen.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, is very different from our American politicians. He is geeky, from a north London very left-wing Jewish immigrant family, he is an atheist, he and his partner who have two children got married only after he was elected leader of the party.
Go Labour! It will be interesting, if not very tense, watching how this unfolds.
(I might as well remove that forum rule of "no politics".)
We voted by mail, but most people go to their local voting place on Thursday to vote in our national election. We vote for our local MP - Member of Parliament - and the party with the most MPs is in power (sort of). There are 650 MPs in the UK, so 326 or more MPs gives a clear majority, except that some of the Northern Ireland MPs won't sit in Westminster (in protest) so really a party needs a few seats less to be a majority. (Read more about UK elections.)
Our election ballot was very different from those in the US where you vote for President, local politicians, judges, amendments to the constitution, local bonds, dog catcher, etc. Our ballot had a list of candidates (about six) and you marked an X for only one.
Steve and I arrived in the UK in May 2010 on the day of the last election. There was no majority government and it took several days for the right-wing Conservatives to form a coalition with the somewhat left-wing Liberal Democrats and take over the government. Labour has been in charge for many years, mostly under Tony Blair, but in the end it was Gordon Brown who lost for Labour.
Since then we have lived here with the austerity cuts enforced by the Conservatives - cuts to local councils resulting in cuts to local libraries, youth centers, social services, cuts to the NHS (national health service), cuts to taxes at the high end, and a raise in VAT (the tax added to nearly everything that you purchase - it is over 20% now). At one point they were going to start selling off the woodlands but thankfully did a "u-turn" on that.
Now we have the Labour party with Ed Miliband as leader running to take over. You may have guessed that I am a Labour supporter. One problem for Labour is Scotland. They used to vote in many Labour MPs but after the vote last year where they voted to NOT leave the UK, many people jumped from the Scottish Labour party to the SNP (Scottish National Party) who had brought them the independence vote. In Scotland, Labour is battling it out with the SNP for seats, but after the election the SNP is likely to support Labour to form a government (no coalition, or so Labour says).
The polls show Labour and the Conservatives very close, but with neither winning a clear majority. It looks now like the Conservatives will win more seats which means they could do a could do a coalition again with the Lib Dems. Or some more interesting combination of everyone but the Conservatives and UKip (our new very right-wing party) could happen.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, is very different from our American politicians. He is geeky, from a north London very left-wing Jewish immigrant family, he is an atheist, he and his partner who have two children got married only after he was elected leader of the party.
Go Labour! It will be interesting, if not very tense, watching how this unfolds.
(I might as well remove that forum rule of "no politics".)
