Historically
dozens of members of parliament have "crossed the floor". Quite a few in recent memory.

But I'll leave that for another time.

I'm arguing that this is the way it works, not whether it's right or wrong. Gordon Brown has as much right to be leading the Labour Party and, thus, the Government as Tony Blair did. Neither of them were elected by you or I to run the Labour party, just like any other PM in the history of PMs

And of course, technically you're correct.

But Gordon Brown has never faced a General Election as leader of the Labour Party so, it's perfectly fair to describe him as un-elected. He has no mandate from the people to govern. The way our system works means he doesn't need that but it's still fair to say that he's never been given the peoples approval.

Of course, the other nonsense I was coming out with is also bullshit but also perfectly true. You can't vote for a party in this country. Technically. But the reality is that this is the way most people vote. They vote (normally) for the Party and not the man at the constituency level ( the simple fools! Don't they know the way that the system works?) which reflects which Party they want to govern them. And that decision is largely governed by who the leader is of that party and hence will be the new Prime Minister.

Making sense yet? You getting the difference between technically and in reality? So yes, all Prime Ministers are unelected. But by accepting that and arguing that, you have to accept that all political parties are unelected. So you can't say that the Labour Party is in power. It's manifestly true that they are, but that could change with the simple decision of a few MPs to change party.

Grand nonsense isn't it?

So until Gordon faces the people he's still has no mandate. He has the power and the trappings (which is what really matter) but not the peoples approval (which he doesn't need).


So I reiterate. Technically, you're right, in the public perception, you're wrong.


Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 16:16, Reply)