How do Elections work in the UK?
There is a general election every 5 years maximum (sooner if called by the government) where all MPs are elected and a party with a majority forms the new government. In between there may be the occasional by-election for a seat where someone dies or stands down. Yesterdays elections were local and were for seats on local councils (town, city, etc) not for parliament and traditionally have a low turnout. These do not always happen for the whole country at the same time, though I’m not sure on what basis this is . Also in the UK yesterday were the elections for members of the European Parliament and for the Mayor of London. The last General election was in spring 2001 so the next will be 2006 at the latest, but is more likely to be next year. Because the date of a general election is not set until a few weeks before the actual date there is always a long period of hypothetical debate (which has already started) but a relatively short campaign.
Also important to remember is that the Prime mInister is designated as being the leader of the largest party in the House of Commons (our ‘Upper’ House, the House of Lords, along with the Monarch – currently Liz Windsor – have much less power than imagined). The leader of the largest party can change at any time considered appropriate and according to the rules drawn up by that party. So, in November 1990 when Mrs. Thatcher ‘left office’ as PM (politically assassinated by the typically callous Parliamentary Conservative Party), she remained an MP for some time, before being kicked upstairs to the Lords as Baroness Thatcher. The party then selected John Major as its leader, who had previously been elected as an mp – not PM – by his constituents, and not by the nation. The Conservatives were, to everyones surprise, re – elected less than two years later, and governed for 5 whole years through very slim majorities, multiple scandals and rebellions.
It is also worth noting that while elections for MPs and for councillors are on a ‘first past the post’ basis, the European elections are run on a system of proportional representation. Additionally, the local elections run on Thursday were not for all local councils, they occurred only in England and Wales and applied only to 166 councils out of the total in E&W. A map showing areas which had local elections and who won is available here. The European elections were UK wide and involved all contituencies. Representation is on the following basis; Scotland 7 Wales 4 Northern Ireland 3 England 64 More info on European Elections here.
