An Unelected Prime Minister?

[JakeS]

This phrase is often thrown around PH. With many people saying that Ole Winky is unelected. Now my knowledge of Politics isn't great but I do know that you don't vote for who is Prime Minister, you vote for who you want to be your Local MP.

The party with the most seats leader then becomes PM. The party leader which is voted into leadership by the votes of the MP's that we have voted for. Making any Party leader, or in this case, Prime Minister voted in by us as a matter of default.

We have never "voted" in any PM so why is this term used so much to bash Gordon Brown? Or do I have completely the wrong idea? Please correct me if I am wrong


Before anyone asks, I am not a Labourite. I am purely asking a question so don't knock me I will be voting Conservative so fear not.

Edited by JakeS on Tuesday 6th April 13:49

[hornetrider]

GB was not leader of the Labour Party when they were voted in at the last election.

[JakeS]

hornetrider said:

GB was not leader of the Labour Party when they were voted in at the last election.

But voting for the leader of the party is surely the incorrect way to consider your vote? When we have never had any say who is leader anyway.

[Einion Yrth]

hornetrider said:

GB was not leader of the Labour Party when they were voted in at the last election.

And the then leader one Anthony Charles Lynton Blair stated that if reelected he would serve a full term.

[cs02rm0]

As I remember things, which may not be accurate, it has never been the case so much that a Prime Minister did his own thing and didn't listen to the cabinet, let alone his own party as in the last 13 years. And now we have this halfway house of devolution. To me, it's no wonder people feel a bit aggrieved.

[pugwash4x4]

the politics of spin now dictate that we actually vote for a personality rather than a party or its policies.

hence when most people vote they vote for that "nice working class boy" or the "hard-working toff".

At the last election every voted for teflon tony rather winky mcfknut

[Muntu]

hornetrider said:

GB was not leader of the Labour Party when they were voted in at the last election.

But he was elected by the process that Labour voters endorse with the act of voting Labour

[esselte]

Muntu said:

hornetrider said:

GB was not leader of the Labour Party when they were voted in at the last election.

But he was elected by the process that Labour voters endorse with the act of voting Labour

Remind me...who stood against him?

[hornetrider]

esselte said:

Muntu said:

hornetrider said:

GB was not leader of the Labour Party when they were voted in at the last election.

But he was elected by the process that Labour voters endorse with the act of voting Labour

Remind me...who stood against him?

And did the general public know about this at the time they were voting?

[Muntu]

esselte said:

Muntu said:

hornetrider said:

GB was not leader of the Labour Party when they were voted in at the last election.

But he was elected by the process that Labour voters endorse with the act of voting Labour

Remind me...who stood against him?

Clearly not enough people voted for a party that had a different way of providing a party leader last time round.

Could it have also been anything to do with the lack of depth within the Labour Party gene pool that nobody challenged?

[Mikeyboy]

In theory you don't even vote for national party but your local MP, he may or may not be a representative of any given party and is supposed to be your mouth piece in parliament. When parties came into the fray they started promoting their best person to be the senior advisor in the cabinet of advisors to the monarch, which is all the prime minsiter is in theory. A lot of the early prime minsters weren't even elected, being Lords after all.
Even constitutional monarchy didn't change that and its only the gradual erosion of what we understand to be the levers of power (or rather how they work) that mean we now think of a prime minister as being an elected officical who runs a government selected by us.

[glazbagun]

The phrase does my head in, too.

[XMG5]

As Mandy was made a Lord in return for helping Gordo hang on to his Primeministership, can we see Mandy stripped of his Lordship credentials in the event that NuLabia loses the election and Mandy is no longer needed?

[esselte]

XMG5 said:

As Mandy was made a Lord in return for helping Gordo hang on to his Primeministership, can we see Mandy stripped of his Lordship credentials in the event that NuLabia loses the election and Mandy is no longer needed?

You weren't being serious were you...?

[Mikeyboy]

the mandy thing and all the others he made peers is where Gordy for a professional politician doesn't seem to have been aware of how the system of government works in his own nation.
Mandy must have been laughing like a drain at his dinner parties knowing that no-matter what he could be a politician for as long as he wanted now and no-one could take it away from him.
El Gordo it seems less likely will have this sort of luck.

Edited by Mikeyboy on Tuesday 6th April 14:38

[Fittster]

Plenty of PMs have sat in the house of lords.

[Einion Yrth]

Fittster said:

Plenty of PMs have sat in the house of lords.

Doesn't make it right.

[XMG5]

Fittster said:

Plenty of PMs have sat in the house of lords.

But most of them had to leave with the other visitors once the guide moved on.

[Mikeyboy]

Einion Yrth said:

Fittster said:

Plenty of PMs have sat in the house of lords.

Doesn't make it right.

Erm, can I suggest you read my above post. Its a fundamental misunderstanding of our system of government to think that we as citizens have any say at all as to who the first lord of the treasury better known as the Prime Minister.
That is the MPs and ultimately actually the Queeen but she doesn't exercise that right any more.

you may not like it but the idea is supposed to be better than having someone who you can't get rid of, even through his/her own party mechanisms because they hold a popular mandate (but may turn out to be nuttier than fruit cake)

[Yeast Lord]

Fact of the matter is the guy was not fit for the job of chancellor let alone pm, he made so many mistakes. I love the frequent phrase heard on the bbc that the man is "intelligent" when he's basically working from the ocean finance call centre manual.

Know this, for every day the public sector is running in it's present form we are paying a huge amount of interest on debt to sustain it. The longer they leave it the harder it will get. Winky's only concern is keeping people sweet now, he couldn't care less about the future because he won't be around. Further there is no question of risking a frigging recovery when they've pumped billions of pounds into the economy and achieved zilch.