British Politick

Over the last few years, I have had a growing fascination with British politics of the past, specifically elections. Usually, I hate politics because I have always believed that politics, down in its core, is arguing over minutia for the most part. Also that common sense and logic have basically gone out the window. But British politics fascinates me for two main reasons.

The first reason is that Great Britain is, in many ways, much smaller than the United States, The population is more concentrated in a small space. That leads to more face to face drama between differing factions. You can't get away from opponents and you have to stand your ground. This type of closeness is most observed in the House of Commons where MPs (equatable to US. representatives) are squeezed together in a small space. Winston Churchill once said that the reason for that was to create tension and lack of comfort. And he's right. If you ever go onto YouTube and see funny Parliament moments, you will know what I mean.

The second reason is basically that Britain is still at its heart an old fashioned country. They still use paper ballots for their elections instead of voting machines. They have lords from each constituency (equatable in a way to US districts) read out the result to the public. There is mudslinging but it seems to have a veneer of primness about it that seems to raise it above the rest, even though it must be said that most people believe that the UK tabloid press is much more biting and caustic than the US tabloid press. Nevertheless, there seems to be a veneer about it. It is also treated more like a game in Britain or so it seems to me. And also it is very uniform and statistical.

The basic way to describe how a British election works is to compare Britain to Texas, or any other state. Each constituency sends a representative (MP) to Parliament. The party that has the majority of MPs in the House of Commons gets power and the leader of said party becomes Prime Minister.

I don't wish to go into the many details of the subject, so I will just leave you with the theme that the BBC, for a long time, used for their election broadcasts (which go on for hours into the night and next morning) It is called "Arthur" by Rick Wakeman and it illustrates the drama which the British seem to treat politics.