Vote’s of no confidence. Can we as the public on mass decide that we have no confidence in the current govt and force a dissolution of parliament and consequently a general election or is that purely the prerogative of H.M T’Queen?

Trouble is – I have no confidence in the Tories or the fence sitters either

I dont have any confidence in any of them to be honest either – how ever i think the system of government in this country needs a damn good shake up and the politicians need reminding who they work for.

We, the British people, should take a couple of days out from hysterical anti-politics and go away and learn about our constitution so that we can come back on Monday and have a less ignorant debate about it.

Dissolution of Parliament is the Queen’s prerogative. But you knew that and are just hoping that we get angry about the fact that mob-rule is not actually enshrined in our constitution.

🙂

I’ve just rushed outside and snapped a small twig. My anger is sated :))

No i knew the Queen could i just want to know what if any power the general population has over the govt. Ive been pissed off with the way this countries run for a long time, especially the pomp and ceremony and how old fashioned the whole system is and the level of the piss the MP’s have been taking with expenses is more than i can stomach. We all knew that they would be getting a freeride to some extent but this is ridiculous.

You have considerable power. Every 5 years (max) you get to vote in a free and fair election on who will represent you in parliament, and you are free to stand for parliament unless you are under 21, an alien, in prison, insane, have been convited of high treason or are a peer of the realm.

Can you name a modern republic where the constitution permits citizens to hold a vote of no confidence in the government of their own motion whenever the press has stirred them up enough?

Governments will request a dissolution when they cannot function as a government. This government absolutely can function. It has a working majority in the house, control of all of the apparatus of state and the confidence of the Queen. What you want is an opportunity to spoil your ballot paper or vote MRL in frustration at the fact that your representative is being paid rather more than you thought he was. While satisfying, that would not be conducive to orderly government. 🙂

Well, we get the chance to turf them out every five years (sometimes sooner).

Or there’s the flaming-torch-and-pitchfork method. Let us know how you get on 😉

[EDIT: what BD said for the grown-up version]

Can you name a modern republic where the constitution permits citizens to hold a vote of no confidence in the government of their own motion whenever the press has stirred them up enough?

The US have a recall system where if sufficent people petition a state they can trigger a new election. I’m not too sure if it applies to all states though, so not quite the same thing.

It is the great strength of the US model that it is so genuinely geographically representative.

I think most Americans know who their state senator and district congressman are, and would seriously consider a recall of that representative were they to be enormously displeased with them.

I suspect (and I may be quite wrong) that most of us are not approaching the current fuss by asking “what are my MP’s expenses claims? are they warranted? what does my MP actually do? does his manipulation of expenses claims outweigh what he has done in terms of actual effective representation such that I will not vote for him again?” A huge proportion of British people do not seem to know who their MP is, and inevitably tyherefore do not know what they do. This produces the sort of angry disengagement that is such a problem at present.

Seriously, go forth. Find out who your MP is. Look at their expenses records when available. Look at their qualifications, at what committees they sit on, at their voting records, their attendance in the house, at their declared interests and (if it bother you, which is I think really optional) at their constituency engagements. If you really don’t like what you see, make sure you know enough at the next election to choose an alternative candidate. If you do not like any of those available, then you need either tio join a local party or to find someone to put up as your own candidate, or stand yourself.

Our parliamentary democracy, while far from perfect, has produced an enormously long run of uninterrupted constitutional government which has been, in broad terms, pretty decent. While it needs keeping an eye on, and some tinkering with, it works amazingly well. But it does need owning by those of us who care about the standards of it.

🙂

Well, the US system is quite different from ours. While still a democracy, the states have largely devolved powers of legislation, policing, taxing and lots more – in fact I’d say a lot more than Scotland or Wales have since devolution.

However, some states in the US (because of the electoral school system) are rather disenfranchised when it comes to presidential elections as your particular state may send very few votes through to the school. So your “vote” in North Dakota may not have the same weight as your “vote” in California or a New England state.

What BigDummy says is bang on. Every five years or so we have a chance to vote a government in or out depending on how we feel about their pay-packet after that particular term. Unfortunately, the British, having never been really deprived of universal suffrage in recent history (pre-suffragette accepted), despite the hand-wringing “people have died so you can vote” (which isn’t really true) that makes me cringe when I hear it, you lot (not all of you of course) can’t be arsed to get off your arses and vote when it comes to it.

We live in what we like to call the cradle of democracy yet we couldn’t care less. Getting the shopping in or the kids to bed is more important than that one chance when we can have our say.

Of course, the best thing would be to bring in a PR system of voting, though given the UK electorate’s general ignorance about politics, I think that might be a step too far.