Well, today was the day Britain said goodbye to the longest-serving Prime Minister, one Tony Blair. For all of his faults and Bush sycophancy, I liked Blair. I have to admit I even had a bit of a crush on him. When I saw him walk through the cafe of the Greater London Authority a year ago I swooned slightly. He looked ever so dashing in his grey striped suit. We must also not forget the infamous Deputy PM John Prescott and his wonderful career that included beating up a protestor for throwing an egg at him and having an affair with his secretary. See his Wikipedia page to see why the affair business is so laughable. At least Bill Clinton had charm.
The thing I find so amusing about British politics, however, is the fact that Gordon Brown steps in as Prime Minister without any election or confirmation besides that of his party and the Queen. It is interesting to me that this man can take over leading the country without the say-so of the British public. Simply because his party is in power, he takes over. It would be like George Bush deciding to step aside and let Dick Cheney take over for the rest of the term (God save us all). The rumour is that a Parliamentary election will be held next May to give Brown the ‘mandate’ he somewhat requires. (This may mean big business for me as it will, more than likely, be the same day as the London Assembly and Mayoral elections I am currently working on, thereby creating more work for us. But it would be great to work to get a Parliamentary election up and running alongside our London election, though I don’t know at this point how much we would actually be involved.)
I’m in no way saying that the British system is flawed or in any other way un-democratic. I’m simply saying that, as an American, I still find it quite odd that the leader of this country has been somewhat anointed and crowned without any input from the public. I suppose that’s the main difference between British and American politics though: Britons tend to support a party rather than the individual. While many Americans are die-hard Democrats or Republicans, we don’t tend to vote automatically along party lines. We look for individual qualities in our elected representatives rather than which party they ascribe to. I can’t figure out which system I prefer. I suppose one could look at it this way: individuals have faults, parties have policies. In the end, however, the campaign trail is littered with false promises whether it be an individual’s or a party’s.