On the British Election...

Before I post my big Wales update, I thought I should give a brief note on the British Election. It works something like this...

- One month before the election, the Prime Minister goes to the Queen and announces he believes an election should be held. (Usually these things are planned in advance, and an election MUST be held every five years)

- The three main parties (Labour, Liberal Democrats, and Conservative "Tories") then have one month to campaign. This is usually a very quiet matter. Parties are only allowed to advertise via signs and billboards, and personal campaigning - NO TV or radio! And since most Londoners don't have cars or yards, there are few signs/bumper stickers around the city.

- Voting happens for only ONE DAY. So no mail in ballots! Voters must go to their nearest polling station (of which there are many) only on the day of the election. And, instead of voting for a candidate, voters choose their favorite party!

- The leader of the winning party (selected by party members) is then made Prime Minister, and the party also selects a cabinet for him. Seats in the House of Commons (Parliament) are assigned according to the percentage of districts who voted for a party. (For example, the party with the greatest percentage of votes will get the most seats in the Parliament House of Commons.)

- A party needs 326 seats to have a majority in Parliament. If no party gets 326 seats, it's called a "Hung Parliament". This happened THIS YEAR, and hasn't been seen since the 1970s. At this point, the three parties begin negotiating to reach a solution.

This year, because of the hung parliament, a lot of political negotiations took place. Both the Conservatives and Labour began courting the Lib-Dems, asking that party to "share" their seats. This is known as a coalition: two parties add their seats together to make the majority, with the larger party taking the most power. Gordon Brown and Labour said that, if the Lib-Dems joined them, Gordon Brown would step down as party leader. However, the Lib-Dems saw more opportunity with the Conseravtives, and joined them!

The current status is this: Labour (led by Gordon Brown) has left office and Conservative leader David Cameron has taken over. However, because of the joint coalition, some of the Cabinet seats are held by Lib-Dems, and Lib-Dem leader Clegg is "Deputy Prime Minister". It will be very interesting to see how these two parties - each with VERY different viewpoints - will compromise in power.

For a better understanding of how the coalition will work, I recommend reading: THIS ARTICLE from the BBC.

That's all for now, keep an eye out for my Wales Weekend Adventure, posted tomorrow!!