Coalition Government Takes over in England

I feel really sorry for them.I imagine they're as mortified as I was when the Supreme Court installed Emperor Dubbaya in an unprecedented display of underhanded tomfoolery.

This is fairly significant for Great Britain as its governments have been remarkably stable over the last century. Having a nest of screwball mopes, the Liberal Democrats, in the government will make it trying for the Prime Minister.

Honestly? I cannot see this working. I'm giving it less than two years before we hear about the subsequent divorce from the marriage that just seems doomed. The honey-moon period is already over. Here we have two political parties who were at each others throats in the run-up to the general election, despised each other, greatly expressed two completely different and very specific mandates and are now joined together. It's not what the British people wanted and really and truly it just shows that your vote DOESN'T count as politicians are going to do what they want regardless. Those that voted Conservative wanted Conservative and those that voted Liberal Democrats wanted Liberal Democrats not to the two mish-mashed together. It's ridiculous and has nothing to do with compromise. I don't know why the Conservatives felt that they truly had won and were so smug. They didn't even pass the 37% to get in, so that means that more than 63% of the UK general public just didn't want them... Read more

I'm pretty optimistic about a Clegg-Cameron partnership. Even though the Liberal Democrats and Conservatives are polar opposites, they are at least trying to make things work by forming a five year government......hopefully rid of the MP expense scandal. I think the last time we had anything that slightly resembled a coalition government was Lincoln/Johnson. Anyway, I wish the UK all the best.

I don't really get British politics, but this seems like a big deal. So now they have an assistant Prime Minister named Clegg? Sounds cool. Abichara, can you please break this down for us?

By popular demand, I will give a crash course in British politics and explain what a coalition government is and how it came about. First some basics. Britain is a constitutional monarchy. That means that the head of state (the person who represents the country officially) is the king or queen, and the head of government is the Prime Minister, as vested through the House of Commons, which is the lower chamber of their parliament. The political leadership consists of the Prime Minister and his cabinet. The PM's cabinet consists of other members of his party in the House of Commons. The opposition party also has a leader and "shadow" cabinet members as well. The Queen has no real power, but she is one of the country's largest property owners, and she is consulted from time to time by the official government. Then you have the House of Lords, which is the upper chamber of their parliament. It is a peer assembly, meaning that most of the seat are inherited and held by the landed... Read more