Why Britain’s New Prime Minister Wasn’t Elected

smithsonianmag.com ^ | July 12, 2016 | Erin Blakemore

[Berlin_Freeper]

What was all that about "unelected bureaucrats"?

All the scoundrels without a plan ran away like cowards and now Brexit is hiding behind a skirt.

A skirt that was for remaining in the EU, btw. LoL!

[hlmencken3]

The UK PM is selected essentially the same way our Speaker of the House is selected. Think of recent Speakers and imagine them wielding executive power.

[dfwgator]

She’s just keeping the seat warm for Britain’s next PM, Sadiq Khan.

[SpaceBar]

Double edged sword. Parliament can just as easily can her through motions of no confidence.

[Dr. Sivana]

Unlike the United States, which has a presidential system of democracy and directly elects officials

Not quite. We directly elect Electors who in turn vote for a president and vice-president. In the occasional even there is no majority of accepted electoral votes, it goes to the House of Representatives, which has one vote per state for President.

[Berlin_Freeper]

[LibFreeUSA]

new boss, same as the old boss

[Berlin_Freeper]

I’ll bkmk for the next time someone harps to me about “unelected eu bureaucrats”.

[NRx]

It’s their system of government and it has generally worked well. She would not be my choice, but she is not going to be President. She is going to be the leader of her party which also holds a majority in Parliament.

And it’s also worth noting that Winston Churchill was never elected Prime Minister during WWII. He got the job the same way May did. The then PM Neville Chamberlain lost the support of his party and realized he had to go. The choice for the next PM was between Churchill and Lord Halifax. Chamberlain called them into a meeting and asked them whose name he should give to the King to form the next government. Halifax bowed out saying that as a hereditary aristocrat he would have to govern from the House of Lords and he believed that was not possible in the middle of the 20th century. He then said he thought Churchill was the man for the job. To which statement Churchill agreed.

And that was that.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was also an unelected leader.

[Vaduz]

It turns out that it’s possible for someone to take the most powerful role in Britain without winning the public’s vote.

Yeah well here we call it a democrat president.

[Berlin_Freeper]

“European laws are made by unelected bureaucrats”
Not true. The European Commission doesn’t make laws. It only makes proposals, which are then debated, amended and passed (or rejected) by elected national governments and directly-elected MEPs

[Berlin_Freeper]

it is quite common for Prime Ministers to come to power without having led their party through a general election. Recent British history shows that it is, in fact, remarkably common.

[dfwgator]

Churchill wasn’t elected. Chamberlain stepped down.

[Berlin_Freeper]

landslide victory for Clement Attlee's Labour Party, over Winston Churchill's Conservatives, giving Labour its first majority government, and a mandate to implement its postwar reforms. The 12.0% national swing from the Conservative Party to the Labour Party remains the largest ever achieved in a British general election.

[dfwgator]

And that’s when Britain died.

[NRx]

Indeed. Again, it’s the nature of a parliamentary system of government.

[Berlin_Freeper]

Elite comes to mind.

[ConservativeDude]

So was John Major immediately after Thatcher. This is just their system at work.

[fella]

The British system is different than ours at times it is much better.