Gordon Brown resigns with immediate effect

[bascule]

oIHBUGvAUMo

Gordon Brown, texture like sun...

Err, sorry, that's not it...



That's him, right? Sure. Sorry, ignorant yank here.

Gordon Brown has resigned as prime minister of the UK, effective immediately.

Does someone on that side of the pond want to let us Yanks know what that feels like? I can't imagine what it would be like if our president resigned.

[the tree]

Does someone on that side of the pond want to let us Yanks know what that feels like? I can't imagine what it would be like if our president resigned.

Well, he was meant to resign as PM. Basically the old PM keeps being PM until the new government is formed (which only happened around the same time) so this is the right way of doing things. There's no big handover ceremony, the new PM goes to the Queen and requests the job*.

 

Though what Gordon Brown has done is resign as leader of the Labour Party. There has been a general feeling since the campaigns season started that if Labour were to stay in power that it wouldn't be under Gordon Brown which is why a coalition between Labour and the Lib Dems never seemed likely.

 

This has happened before, Tony Blair resigned/stepped/down/was quietly asked to leave in order for Gordon to get into power. When that happened, it was between general elections so the new PM was chosen within the party and there was a change of administration without a general election and not everyone was comfortable with that. Even though constitutionally speaking it was all legitimate, some people have been calling Gordon "our unelected PM" ever since.

 

David Cameron, leader of the Conservatives, has now formed the new government. He could have tried to do this straight away but then he'd have been running a minority government which would have made him fairly useless. So the Conservatives, at about the same time (or at least within the same couple of hours) as Gordon Brown's resignation, have only just formed a new government in coallition with the Lib Dems.

 

So we now have a majority government run by the conservatives but with Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, as deputy prime minister and other Lib Dems in other positions although exactly what is yet to become clear.

 

The whole notion of this coalition is really awkward. Obviously Lib Dem voters and Conservative voters are pleased that their party is in government but the real die-hards aren't keen at all on working together.

 

William Hague [conservative], new foreign secretary, has been on the Today programme saying there was a "true collective agreement" between the Tories and Lib Dems.

 

This is a "realignment" of British politics, he said.

 

"There are many things that the Lib Dems have had to swallow that are very difficult for them", he said, and the same was true of the Conservatives. He admitted "there will be people in both parties who will quietly wish it hadn't happened".

 

--http://timesonline.typepad.com/election10/

 

Assuming the collation is going to be fairly strong, who gets to be the new leader of the Labour party isn't massively important although a really strong Labour party (something we haven't seen for a while) could impact the Con/Lib collation hard enough that it would break up before the next election**.

 

Overall, everyone is feeling a little dazed and confused - we've had a Labour government for 13 years in which people have steadily either lost faith in them or joined their ranks, they've gone from the heroic trade unionists known as Labour who formed the National Health Service to "those-kind-of-centre-left-big-government-types" known as "New Labour", And now we've got a whole new government and we don't know what the hell it is. No-one, even within the parties, really knows what to expect of a Conservative/Liberal coalition. It's obviously not going to be the old Thatcherite Conservatives, nor are the Liberal Democrats going to have as much sway as they'd ideally like.

 

So no-one knows what to expect in the next few years though whatever does it may be a welcome change.

 

*this is one of those things were the Queen can veto it in theory but never has and never will.

**which, incidentally, has already been announced. Cameron has introduced fixed terms of office where previously we've just had a maximum.

[Horza2002]

We're also now waiting to see which policies from each party (Torries and Lib Dem) will be used for this new government. Again, it all happened very suddenly yesterday. In the morning, Labour where still negotiating with the Lib Dems to get a deal which collapsed around 5pm.

 

It seems very different over hear then. In most cases, Prime Ministers resign when they leave office. Most likely because they don't like the idea of having to face the new PM from the opposition benches

[Klaynos]

the new PM goes to the Queen and requests the job*.

 

The old PM suggests to the queen who she should invite to become PM, the new one doesn't just pitch up, he is invited and asked to form a government.

 

It is the constitutional responsibility of the outgoing pm to ensure that there is someone to take over from him/her who can form a government.

[Dak]

they've gone from the heroic trade unionists known as Labour who formed the National Health Service to "those-kind-of-centre-left-big-government-types" known as "New Labour"

 

I don't get why everyone calls labour left: maybe i'm just misunderstanding the term, but they seem quite right-wing to me (much moreso than the conservatives, who're pretty right themselves).

 

The old PM suggests to the queen who she should invite to become PM, the new one doesn't just pitch up, he is invited and asked to form a government.

 

It is the constitutional responsibility of the outgoing pm to ensure that there is someone to take over from him/her who can form a government.

 

Bascule, iirc you asked how an unwritten constitution works? this is a good example: afaik, there're no laws that say this is how it's done, but, still, this is how it's done.

[Klaynos]

I don't get why everyone calls labour left: maybe i'm just misunderstanding the term, but they seem quite right-wing to me (much moreso than the conservatives, who're pretty right themselves).

 

All three of the main UK parties are pretty central, it used to be that Labour were clearly to the left of the others but they have all converged.

[D H]

I am so glad you chaps got things straightened out because that means one of the best comedy shows on the telly, Prime Minister's Questions, is back from reruns.

[insane_alien]

here's hoping gordon left a big steamy turd in the ensuite for the tories.

[Severian]

here's hoping gordon left a big steamy turd in the ensuite for the tories.

 

You think Cameron doesn't have someone to clean his toilet?

[Ophiolite]

You think Cameron doesn't have someone to clean his toilet?

Nick Clegg?

[bascule]

here's hoping gordon left a big steamy turd in the ensuite for the tories.

 

Does the concept of an "upper decker" exist in the UK?

[DrP]

here's hoping gordon left a big steamy turd in the ensuite for the tories.

 

I always said that you were a Labour voter! ;-)

 

 

Thank God that idiot has gone. "We need to borrow and spend more money to get ourselves out of debt".... what an idiot.

 

It is a recurring cycle over here - Labour gets our country in DEEP debt, then the Tories come in and get us out of it.... the public get fed up with the lack of spending and vote in a labour government who get us in ddebt again...and so on..... let's hope we arn't too far gone for Cameron tpo save us this time.

[bascule]

It is a recurring cycle over here - Labour gets our country in DEEP debt, then the Tories come in and get us out of it

 

You're lucky you have that. Over here we have two parties hell bent on plunging our country deeper in debt.

[insane_alien]

I always said that you were a Labour voter! ;-)

 

see, thing is, i'm not. i just hate cameron.

[Severian]

It is a recurring cycle over here - Labour gets our country in DEEP debt, then the Tories come in and get us out of it....

 

That is not a true reflection of reality. While it might be true that Labour governments are good at getting us into debt, I don't think the Tories ever get us out of it.

 

The "economic success" under Thatcher was entirely funded by the discovery of North Sea oil, so hardly her doing. In fact, she squandered most of the money.

[D H]

Oh. Then welcome to our world.