@mrmhead Said
What I don't quite get is when they say they will "Form a new gov't" after each election.
Is that just a foreboding way of saying "We'll get back to the business of governing" ? - having to make friends if necessary to have a majority of seats "on your side"
When they Form a new government - can they change rules?
What makes it "new"?
Are The Kinks getting back together?
The old government... that is, Parliament.... is formally dissolved by the Queen when an election is called. The moment this happens every MP no longer represents his constituencies and all the "mechanics" of running the country are, in effect, in the hands of the Civil Service. This frees up the political parties and their candidates for every seat to campaign... attend hustings.... you know, the process of going out to the people and making your case for re-election.
There is a fundamental difference between our system of elections and yours. You elect a president, we elect a government. The actual leader of that government can change if the party in power decides to ditch the Prime Minister in mid-Parliament as the Conservatives did with David Cameron after the Brexit vote.
This is why election campaigns here are quite short. We need to get a government elected so business can resume. We can't go on "The Campaign Trail" for umpteen months while the sitting incumbent in the White House gets on with running the country as Obama did while The Donald and Hillary campaigned.
It's a very speedy system. A short election campaign and no three month gap between election and inauguration. When the Prime Minister changes, the old one is out of Downing Street and the new one has moved in and changed the curtains and soft furnishings before lunch time the next day.
When one party has won the election, the leader of that party is summoned to Buck House and the Queen instructs him / her to form a government to run the country in her name. (Usually) 9 days after the election the Queen makes her speech in the House of Commons laying down the programme for how the country will be run for the duration of the new Parliament. This is why it is called "Forming a new government". It's a new government by definition, because the old one was formally dissolved by the Monarch.
Yeah, I know.... outdated.... anachronistic... irrelevant monarchy, yada, yada, yada, but it's a model that's copied in every constitutional monarchy around the world. It's not called "The Mother Of All Parliaments" for nothing.
Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view), no party gained the figure of 323 seats in the Commons to have an overall majority on this occasion. This means that we either have a lame duck government (didn't that happen to Jimmy Carter..?) or the governing party forms a coalition (Conservative / Liberal Democrats 2010-2015) or there is a pact with another party (in this case, the DUP) for informal support so that a majority in the House is obtained. Not ideal by any stretch of the imagination.
Of course, they could always call another election, but that's unlikely on this occasion unless things get reaaaaaaaaallllly bad. Which they could. Labour are in the ascendant right now and another election could see the Tories out of office altogether.
I'm not sure what you mean by "change the rules". If you mean can they change the rules of how elections are held here, then the answer is no. Sure, they can tinker a bit with the procedure, but that takes a vote in the Commons. What cannot change is the role of the Queen. The government runs the country
in her name Regardless of any vote or amendment or who occupies number 10, we are still, all of us, Her Majesty's subjects and she is still the ultimate authority in the land. Parliament cannot even sit without her say-so. Of course, she would never overrule Parliament. The last one who tried started a Civil War which he lost and ended up getting his head chopped off.
To oust a government requires a vote of No Confidence in the House. Parliament has to vote to dissolve itself.... then the PM goes to the Queen... and so it goes around.
It's all a matter of checks and controls and funnily enough, it works. We have a great democracy and for all it's idiosyncracies and eccentricities (it wouldn't be British without them, would it..? LOL) we usually find that the electorate keeps the loonies and extremists in check. We are, at heart, a very liberal people and we prefer concensus politics to giving one party
too much power, which was what May wanted this time.
The politicians have been given a message by the people. Don't take anything for granted.
I hope this helps to answer your questions. Thanks for asking.
Oh, and the Kinks broke up in 1996.
Sir Ray Davies was knighted by Her Majesty in the New Year Honours list on 1 January this year, for Services to The Arts.
And well deserved it was too.