but doesn't Brown hate Mandy?

Yes, but he sold his soul.

I'm not all that bothered about him not being an MP either. Why cant the PM appoint whoever he likes to run govnt departments as in the US? Robert Gates is a national security professional (and a Republican), I'm not sure he gets a whole lot out of his weekly chats with Bob Ainsworth, MP for Coventry North-East and former sheet metal worker.

Stupid broken forum double post.

Stoner and I were discussing this a while back, does the PM even need to be an MP? Since the position of Prime Minister has essentially evolved rather than was created (to a set of rules) I can't find anything that suggests the incumbent has to be an MP. Although by default/tradition it seems to have become so. For instance; Lords have been appointed and have resigned their peerages and been elected as MPs

Can be a Lord but pretty unlikely/unacceptable these days.

Just tell me when I'm boring you……..Lord Halifax was first choice to succeed Chamberlain in 1940, the Beaverbrook (pal of Churchill) newspapers made a stink about it and Winston was in.

If Brown fell under a bus (no, dont go there) I'm pretty sure Mandelson would get the nod from the Queen and be our first Jewish and first gay PM, pending a prettyquick general election.

Thats more like it, some arguing about politics. Love reading the Labour supporters defending the their PM's/MP's who have ordered the killing of thousands.

McBoo:
first Jewish and first gay PM

Disraeli? even if an apostate.
Heath?

Disraeli was CofE I think (obviously with a name like that)

Heath, yeh I should have said "openly".

Shows how far we've come, Mandy No.2 in the land and no-one cares that he is homosexual….

…….apart from that big queer Darcy.

being gays fine, being jewish fine, being black and having a whiff of islam now that would get the daily mail/sun/telegraph readers into a sh!tfit of paranoia

does that mean the american electorate/ political system is more progressive than ours?

would america tolerate an out VP?

Ok, mcboo, this is the last time I'm biting 🙂

I was winding up me ol' mucker Flash – it's a thing I do and he knows the spirit in which it's intended…mind you, he hasn't posted the pic of the guy with the giant mccain oven chip on his shoulder in a while…he must be getting soft.

My views on PM and my own sexual orientation are nothing to do with you – you can call me queer (actually, I am a bit queer sometimes about some things) if you really must but if you think I'm being homophobic, then I suggest you report me to the mods…sweetheart.

[does that mean the american electorate/ political system is more progressive than ours?]

Yep sure is, they vote for the president.

Disraeli was CofE I think (obviously with a name like that)

Only a matter of moments to check that he was indeed Jewish.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli

Oh mate just teasing. You deserved it just a little bit. 8)

Fair enough, well if you bend over there then, you'll get what you deserve…honey 8)

A teenage convert to Anglicanism, he was nonetheless the country's first and thus far only Prime Minister of Jewish heritage

aracer can we agree to both be correct? I don't want to fall out with the whole of STW in one thread.

Darcy, Mcboo, would you two gayers just get a room?

😉

I'm a survivor

Yep sure is, they vote for the president.

Not really in any more direct sense than we vote for the PM.

Darcy, Mcboo, would you two gayers just get a room?

Only if we can make a Flash sandwich 😈

You wish, petal, you wish!

😈

I didn't know he was gay.
Perhaps instead of "Mandy" they should call him "Man-deep".