This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
From Useful Notes On Britain Discussion
Silent Hunter: A section on the British political system would be a good one to have. However, I'm a card-carrying member of a major political party in the UK and I'm not sure I could avoid being biased.
Seth: Be biased, someone will clean the descriptions up.
So what, a description of parliament, house of commons and house of lords. The three main parties with small bits about notable ones like UKIP, BNP and Green. Capped of with the role of the queen? UK Government, Useful Notes On British Government.
Silent Hunter: OK, but I'll wait until Brown becomes PM.
Seth: For a general outline of the system, that should be irrelevant.
Seth: Feel free to edit out my injected opinions and clean up, i tried to create an outline of the framework that will work even if parties change, PM's die ect. The rough outline of the government is there (Not including the other houses or branches but the two important ones). And no i'm not kidding about the lords.
Andrew: I stuck in some stuff about devolution.
Seth: Edited — despite there being nothing majestic about a dumpy old woman in a fancy hat. — because while funny it doesn't really add to the point. Also some of her hats are quite nice - especially that red one with the gold and jewels. (It should be noted about this point a few of my friends consider me a royalist - i don't but safe to say my views on the royals are less negative than most)
Mister Six: I was the one who put in the dumpy/fancy hat thing, purely for comic effect. My own opinion is that the core royal family (ie. the king, queen and kids) actually serve a useful potential political function, but the rest can go hang.
Morgan Wick: Can someone explain to an American brainwashed into thinking all thought falls on a straight line the difference between Labour and the Liberal Dems?
Seth: Liberal:Green —- Lib Dems — Labour- :Moderate: Conservatives —- UKIP —————-BNP :Conservative
Number of lines rough distance from alignment, see even this can fall on a straight line. (Sethpolitics - simplified for your convenience)
Mister Six: I've put that in the article, but I've changes it to left-wing/centre/right-wing to avoid conservative/Conservative confusion.
"Parliamentary debates and question times are far more rowdy than the United States Congress, with creative insults being the order of the day."
Murder Munkey: As a fan of history who knows how crazy Congress could and did get in the past, this is a pretty amusing line.
Praetyre: A party that endorses boosts in disability spending, labour unions, isolationism, increased welfare spending, worker cooperatives and share holding policies the likes of which would sit up there with Noam Chomsky and greater protection for NHS workers is not right-wing, unless you change the definition of the word. It's only "right wing" policies are on the monarchy, police powers, national service and mandatory gun ownership. It's more like an authoritarian, racist leftist party.
Mr Wednesday: Try telling that to some of its own members. The right-wing label is, at a guess, because while only certain policies could be deemed right-wing, those are the policies the party is most known for and touts the most.
