[Lofty]

Originally Posted by SKUNKY

Let's just leave it at "bikini waxed".....

Pass the puke bag Skunky....I have this horrible mental image lodged in my brain.....Bleurgh!!!!!

[TopHat]

Lofty:

What, you'd rather see his Scottish Thistle?

[timbo]

Originally Posted by MoMo

Dear Gort,

i've waxed lyrical about the the called ' British Costitution' in other threads. The Europen Legislation which trickles out of Brussels sometimes conflicts with, but mostly over-rides English or Scottish Law. This is only in those area where The Euro-Law takes precedence. Mostly this affects The Economy, Human Rights, Farming, Fisheries, iron and Steel production and Taxation. Once European legislation takes hold, IT CAN NEVER BE RECINDED!

e.g. once we have levied a rate of Value Added Tax at 15%, the rate can never go down, only up. You can't even scrap the tax and start from scratch because you would be in breach of EEC legislation ( which you subscribe to when you join! )

This is only one sample of what you can get locked into!

However, because most of English Common Law, together with Scottish Common Law together with all the Reform Acts and Judicial Pronouncement, which establishes Legal Precedence, is in both Written and Unwritten forms, it would take a team of legal experts 20 years to establish what exactly comprises the British Costitution!

Even then, you would have to, as one would have to today, distinguish between Scottish Law and English Law, both countries having distict legal systems which were recognised at the times of the Union of the Crowns ( 1605 ) and the Union of Parliaments ( 1707 ).

Apart from establishing the " Constitution ", you would then have to consider which parts of it have been taken over by Euro-Legislation.

Now, we come to the sticky subject of Constitutional Monarchy ( which most misguided Brits see as a protection against Dictatorship ). The fact that we have a Costitutional Monarchy may be simplified thus :

• The Queen holds all power
• The queen is the Head of State
• The queen is the Head of the Church of England
• All services are loyal only to the Monarchy, not Parliament
• The Queen can call or dismiss Parliaments at will ( and therefore controls the Judiciary )
• The Prime Minister is, as the name suggests, the First Minister of the Queen
• Only the Queen can invite a member of Parliament to form a Goverment and become Prime Minister
• All Swans belong to the Queen!
• The Queen owns all the land between the High Water Mark and the Low Water Mark!
• Only the Queen's Head and cipher may appear on a postage stamp
• and on, and on, and on, and on,...........

In reality, this means that the most powerful politician in the land is unelected except in his or her parliamentary constituency. All the major and minor jobs in Government are carved up by the party which polls the most vates, so winning most Parliamentary seats in the House of Commons. All the major Political Parties submit lists of
" Approved " candidates for constituencies to select a candidate from, so you can't even win at a local level!

Gort, you ask how a leader in the UK can do this. The answer is that any UK PM can do just what the hell he likes, because the Brits are a nation of gutless sheep when it comes to politics! ( this comes from 2000 years of slavery and the fact that most Brits are conditioned to unquestioning servitude!

Any political change which occurs is usually the result of national moaning about it, long after the damage has been done! That's why we have the reputation of being a nation of mumblers and grumblers. National moaning is the way things change, incrementally!

Can Blair do what he likes? You bet he can!

And so can every PM past present and future, and will be until some form of proportional representation is instituted. - but that will never happen as it would upset the status quo if the two main parties.

Although from experiencing two very different political systems first hand I have to say for all it's ills I do prefer the UK form to what we have here in the US. These bunch of back stabbers are to interested in raising "politcial contributions" for the whole time they are in office as opposed to getting any real work done.

At least you can be guaranteed a good fight with the UK's system of confrontational parliamentary debate.

By the way I'd love to see the fireworks if the Queen refused to give assent to a bill.

[SKUNKY]

Originally Posted by TopHat

Lofty:

What, you'd rather see his Scottish Thistle?

....or would you rather look at Bush?....

[MoMo]

And so can every PM past present and future, and will be until some form of proportional representation is instituted. - but that will never happen as it would upset the status quo if the two main parties.

Dear Timbo,

that's what we have in Scotland now...P.R.

The recent election brought in the Scottish Nationalists who now govern with a minority. Let's see what happens!

MoMo

[MoMo]

....or would you rather look at Bush?....

Remember Skunky, the laws which came forth from the burning bush! ( all that stuff which you can't do like don't 'covet' thy neighbour's lawnmower, etc. )

[TopHat]

Originally Posted by timbo

At least you can be guaranteed a good fight with the UK's system of confrontational parliamentary debate.

Plus, the exchange of barbs is good entertainment.

[TopHat]

Originally Posted by MoMo

Remember Skunky, the laws which came forth from the burning bush! ( all that stuff which you can't do like don't 'covet' thy neighbour's lawnmower, etc. )

Don't you mean covet thy neighbor's ferret?

[timbo]

Originally Posted by MoMo

Dear Timbo,

that's what we have in Scotland now...P.R.

The recent election brought in the Scottish Nationalists who now govern with a minority. Let's see what happens!

MoMo

Yes Minorities happen, but what does that really mean. It means that one side cannot impose their will "willy-nilly" on the rest of the electorate, therefore compromise is the order of the day.

Anyway I'm really glad to hear that the UK is finally taking a step in the right direction for being a much more representative government and hopefully more energizing democracy. No system is perfect, but this form does have a lot of advantages.

[timbo]

Originally Posted by TopHat

Plus, the exchange of barbs is good entertainment.

Have you ever caught a PM's question time on cspan