You suggested that Brown being an MP from north of the border
Was shaky grounds for him as PM. Your words, refer back to your original post. And I didn't have to look up Primes Inter Pares, I have some Latin knowledge and have studied the UK & US systems of Government. Thanks for asking though.

Yes, collective responsibility at cabinet level is the ideal and of course should be aimed for. Things change however, and as there is no written constitution in the UK (which of course there should be) it's a fact of political life that the way in which the Government operates will change.

And as long as we have people decrying that they didn't vote for the Prime Minister it will be a fact that there will be presidential style election campaigns (see the current David Cameron billboards for example, he says he'll cut the deficit, not that a Conservative Government will cut it). Politicians are in it to win votes, if they can do this by relying on their looks and personality over actual policies then that is what will happen.

In my view, what the UK needs is perhaps for schools to teach the basics of the electoral system, not as part of a Government and Politics A Level or Higher, but as part of a general education. If more people understand that they vote for a local representative, not (in over six hundred cases) a party leader then maybe we'll see a move back to consensus rule over presidential. I've already seen someone on here comment that Gordon Brown was never elected and that his name's never appeared on a ballot paper. That made me sad when I read it.

So, yes, we are in agreement that the PM should be first among equals. Where we differ is that I think it's unfair, childish and mendacious to lay the blame for presidential style politics in the UK at the feet of Gordon Brown. He has many faults, but he is not the source of all evil. Neither is Mandelson.

Deeply unpopular guys, but I still trust them more than I do David Cameron. Never trust a Tory.
(dozers, do fuck off ur a nob m8, Fri 5 Feb 2010, 13:00, Reply)