British Politics

The UK's general election was held this past Thursday. Forgive my simple explanations in advance--I'm not normally a political junkie--and allow me to share my fascination with seeing the UK's political 'gears' in action. This election has had particular attraction: this year saw the first three-party televised debates in the history of British elections--as well as the first hung parliament since 1974.

I watched the results start to come in Thursday night in the MCR. At some level, as in the US, the election-night coverage was complete entertainment. There were over-the-top animations (including a 'virtual world' on the BBC*), live reporters at ballot-counting centers around the country, color-coded maps and celebrities of all ranks commenting on the results as they came in. One unique way the BBC presented election data was the 'swingometer', a 2-dimensional graphic that looks like a speedometer and maps the relative change in popular vote between two parties to the number of seats each party will win in the House of Commons.

As I've already mentioned, the election results are in and the results are historic: for the first time since 1974, the UK has a 'hung parliament', which basically means that no party has a simple majority in House of Commons. In a (very) rough analogy to American politics, the House of Commons serves both legislative and executive roles during election season: the party with the majority in the House of Commons chooses the Prime Minister. Since the House of Commons can, at any time, remove the Prime Minister and force a general election by a majority vote of 'no confidence' in the Prime Minister's leadership, a hung parliament has, in the past, led to short-lived, weak governments in the UK.

All this adds up to a less-than-rosy short-term prognosis for the country. Politicians are working to compromise and form a coalition government, a very delicate issue because the three primary players in British politics at the moment have different views on a key issues. The latest news here is that Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister, has announced that he will step down as Labour leader, opening speculation as to who will be Prime Minister if the Liberal Democrats make a deal to form a minority government with Labour.

All that said, I'm hopeful for the long term. This election brought some long-standing issues with the British election process into public focus, with newscasters focusing on polls closing with long queues still waiting to vote and the huge mismatch between popular vote and seats in the House of Commons (and, in turn, the Prime Minister). This election should lead to changes that will give the UK a stronger government--or at least one more attuned to the needs of the populace--in the long run.

Oh, and another piece of election trivia: Cambridge elected Julian Huppert, a trained biochemist, Cavendish research scientist and fellow at Clare College, to the city's parliamentary seat!


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*While I was looking for video clips of this year's coverage, I stumbled across this gem from the 2008 election, one special way of making election results interesting in a BBC virtual-world, hosted by Jeremy Vine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7JX8D1Kb88 The Briton-does-Texan accent is amazing!