Posted on 07/12/2016 12:31:25 PM PDT by Berlin_Freeper
In the wake of Britain’s controversial “Brexit” vote, the United Kingdom gets a new prime minister tomorrow. But Theresa May, the U.K.’s former Home Secretary, will succeed David Cameron without ever being elected. Why?
It turns out that it’s possible for someone to take the most powerful role in Britain without winning the public’s vote. The reason: Parliamentary democracy. Unlike the United States, which has a presidential system of democracy and directly elects officials, Britain elects a parliament once every five years.
Each member of the British House of Commons belongs to a political party, and the party that wins the majority forms its own government and appoints a Prime Minister. A vote for an MP, or member of parliament, is a vote for a political party as much as an individual—and the party gets to name its own officials. That means that when a prime minister resigns or is removed during a non-general-election year, the ruling party selects its next prime minister, usually in a run-off election.
May, the 59-year-old Conservative who will head to 10 Downing Street after Cameron tenders his resignation to Queen Elizabeth II, has been a frontrunner for her party’s top slot since Cameron announced he would step down. But until yesterday, it seemed as if she’d have to run for office in a party-wide runoff vote later this summer.
That all changed due to Conservative infighting and Brexit controversy. As Rowena Mason and Heather Stewart write for The Guardian, May was dangled as a potential alternative to Boris Johnson, the divisive former mayor of London who pushed Britain toward a vote to leave the European Union. As pressure to find a candidate who could unite Conservatives grew, the field quickly narrowed until only two remained: May and Andrea Leadsom, junior energy minister. members of parliament honed down the choice to the candidates in internal votes with the intention of holding a runoff on September 9, Steven Erlanger writes for The New York Times.
But then something happened that negated the need for a runoff: Leadsom stepped aside. As Laura Kuenssberg explains for the BBC, Leadsom purportedly quit in a bid to unite the party and expedite the transition between Cameron and the new Prime Minister-in-waiting. But widespread criticism about Leadsom’s remarks about how having children qualified her for the post of Prime Minister also seem to have played a role in the decision.
Since May is already a member of the existing Conservative government in her role as Home Secretary, she does not need to assemble a new government as Prime Minister. And because there is no longer any opposing candidate for the role, that negates the need for a runoff election.
So what happens now? For today, May is Prime Minister-in-waiting. According to the BBC, Cameron, who participated in his final cabinet meeting today, will participate in his last rousing round of Prime Minister’s Questions tomorrow, then go to Buckingham Palace, where he will tender his resignation and tell the Queen that May should be the next prime minister. May will then head to the Palace herself, where the Queen will invite her to form a government.
Winston Churchill was indeed very elite.
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Which brings us back to Gordon Brown.
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well, the EU can issue regulations which are immediately enforceable “as law” in member states.
So...it is accurate that some things that have the force of law are actually imposed upon the people of Europe by unelected bureaucrats.
Somebody can become president in America without a single vote too, just ask Gerald Ford. Resignations make things muddy for a while in any system.
Churchill wasn’t elected either in 1940.
Actually, they aren’t. When people talk about “the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels”, they usually mean the European commission. The commission is an organisation like no other: more than a civil service but less than a government. Composed of 28 commissioners – one from each country – the commission drafts, enforces and monitors EU laws. But it does not pass laws.
Except Ford was elected on the presidential ticket in part for said purpose.
Or rather he was elected, period. Not a political appointment.
Yes, but it is very rare. Removing a sitting PM is like pulling Clinton away from an orgy with under aged girls.
I like both systems. My preference is to the American one, but both are leaps and bound better than other European states.
His path to the presidency never went through the ticket, he replaced Agnew after the ‘72 election, then got “promoted” 18 months later. By the time he was on the “ticket” in any way it was as incumbent.
I like Question Time, we need that here.
Correct. The European Commission does those things. It is, perhaps, best understood as the executive branch of the EU.
But there’s also the European Council, made up of the heads of each member state. The Council can take votes, and does, and then can impose things on ALL of the member states as law...it can also delegate certain things back to the European Commission, which can then also be imposed upon the member states uniformly, as law. So actually in certain cases, the European Commission can absolutely do things which have the force of law in member states.
The whole category of law called “regulations” in Eurospeak is the most pernicious, and the most objectionable. It is in this category of law making where the EU imposes its (often bureaucratic) laws on to the member states, and on to the people of Europe....including...how to sort their trash. It’s crazy.
It’s also very confusing, and words are not used with their traditional meanings (such as “European Parliament”).
What you offered up is in no way comparable to this:
Since 1900 Britain has had 22 different Prime Ministers. Our list below shows that in that period there have been 14 occasions on which 13 different Prime Ministers have come to power other than through a general election.
| Year | Prime Minister | Party |
| 2007 | Gordon Brown | Labour |
| 1990 | John Major | Conservative |
| 1976 | James Callaghan | Labour |
| 1963 | Sir Alec Douglas-Home | Conservative |
| 1957 | Harold Macmillan | Conservative |
| 1955 | Sir Anthony Eden | Conservative |
| 1940 | Winston Churchill | Conservative |
| 1937 | Neville Chamberlain | Conservative |
| 1935 | Stanley Baldwin | Conservative |
| 1923 | Stanley Baldwin | Conservative |
| 1916 | David Lloyd George | Liberal |
| 1908 | Herbert H. Asquith | Liberal |
| 1905 | Henry Campbell-Bannerman | Liberal |
| 1902 | Arthur Balfour | Conservative |
You can add Theresa May.
Except Ford was elected on the presidential ticket in part for said purpose.”
LOL.
Ummmm...you better check you history books on that point. Ford was never elected on a ticket.
I’m Canadian so from what I understand or have heard about Britain is they have a system that is a bit freer, believe it or not than Canada. A member of the same party might actually disagree with a fellow party member in QP. That would NEVER happen in Canada. They are all a bunch of lemmings.
FWIW, I love American constitutional history. Us Canadians forget how young our country is (1867) relative to the US.
Your not going to get a full house with every hand.
I’ll tell you this, I been in Germany before the euro currency and not a single thing in my life has changed because of the EU. I even still buy plastic bags at the supermarket. If the EU is pressing laws they should tell someone about it. LoL!
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