Questions Post

[lolitics_meme]

Questions of any kind can go here!   
This way they don't end up in the prompts post and everything's easier to find.

You are not familiar with something?
You need insight into the British school system?
You are not sure what category your fic belongs to?
...

All those issues and more can be discussed here. There surely will be people around who are

Comments

[abluestocking]

I'll get us started off! I would love to have a list of progressive Tories, for times I need a "good guy/gal". And if you know what is particularly progressive about them, that's great too - i.e. "so-and-so is outspoken in favor of gay rights", etc.

I would also love to have a list of evil Tories, haha, but I think that might get a little long...but if you have any particularly evil ones, shoot them my way!

Neither of these lists will probably show up in Charity, as it's almost done (although I could have used them when I reshuffled the Cabinet!), but I'm sure they will be very helpful to me (and hopefully to others!) in the future. :)

[okmewriting]

When the US election was going on most of the political commentators that I heard on the beeb said that although they two parties link up, the Conservatives were nowhere near as right wing as the Republicans. Apparently they have more in common with the Democrats.

[abluestocking]

Thank you for all of this! I really appreciate it. Damn, I thought there were more progressive baby Tories. xD Good to know!

[insatiable_nick]

I hereby volunteer to Brit-pick any grammar, pronunciation or spelling. Just PM me the fic and I'll do it.

Whitehall Info

[anonymous]

The Chancellor & the PM both have official residences in Downing Street. I believe they are the only two that do. While the PM's office etc is in Downing Street. The Chancellor works in the Treasury (beautiful on the outside - soulless on the inside, completely modernised - white minimalism ick). The PM usually lives in the flat above no. 10 but the last few PMs have had young children and have taken the larger No. 11 flat

Prime Ministerial Rankings

[angelshavemybox]

The excitement of the election and coalition has made me realise how bad my knowledge of British political history is compared to US, sooo...

In America, they frequently have historians make their judgement on all the Presidents and compile a sort of league table [most recent?] which rates and ranks each Presidency from Washington to G.W.Bush. Is there, or has there ever been anything like this in Britain, which ranks each Premiership?

Also if there isn't or just for the hell of it anyway, I'm curious, so who do you think would be most likely to top a list of PM's, and who do you think would be deemed the worst?

Re: Prime Ministerial Rankings

[abluestocking]

My instinct would be to say that Churchill would top any list of PMs, hands down. I'd be willing to bet money on it.

Not sure who'd be the worst, though.

Re: Prime Ministerial Rankings

[angelshavemybox]

I would definitely agree on Churchill, and when I asked question I assumed he would be top anyway, but I realised I don't really know who else would actually be considered good besides him.

I'd assume that someone like Lloyd- George or Clement Atlee would be highly ranked because they dealt with major historical issues like the First World War and the post-war problems from 1945 though. But then again I know nothing about any of the Prime Ministers before 1900.

Worst I think is probably more difficult to judge than best. Nixon is often considered one of the worst US presidents because of the Watergate scandal and his resignation, but from what I've studied his foreign policies seemed very successful. I think it's too early to tell, because we haven't got full access to sources, nor enough hindsight, but I get the feeling Brown will always be considered a bad prime minister and even though I don't support him, I think its a too harsh judgement. He seemed adept, but almost as if he was the wrong man at the wrong time.

Re: Prime Ministerial Rankings

[angelshavemybox]

No really conclusive answer, but you might want to take a look at this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_rankings_of_Prime_Ministers_of_the_United_Kingdom

It's a selection of different polls/studies/surveys etc of the best PMs - you can take a look at any recurring names (bear in mind that the results will depend a bit on the kind of person polled) and investigate any names you're not familiar with.

US politics - please correct me

[anonymous]

Since we might get an elected upper house, I wonder if I could ask about the US system

Re: US politics - please correct me

[abluestocking]

Presidents - Always a Republican or a Democrat. At the beginning of the Presidential campaign - about one-and-a-half years before the election - a number of people will declare their candidacy in each party (like a leadership election). Then they go around competing for votes in the primary season, which ultimately ends up in one person winning for each party. (Sometimes these are short - one person is obviously going to win - and sometimes they are really long, like the Hillary/Barack bit.) Then there's a big celebration party where everyone gets together and officially names the nominee and he/she picks his/her Vice President. This is different from a leadership election, though, in that if the nominee doesn't win the Presidency, he/she is basically a pariah and rarely gets a second chance. So Al Gore lost, he was gone, John Kerry lost, he was gone, and then it was Barack Obama's turn. [I mean, Kerry's still a Senator, but he'll never run for President again, and he's not the leader of his party. Kind of like William Hague, I guess

Re: US politics - please correct me

[anonymous]

That was awesome thanks!

I feel even more sorry for the poor little congressmen now. Do they really have to move to Washington for just two years?

How often do people visit their home constituencies? How does a member for somewhere in Oregon stay connected to their people and their issues? Do they just fly around a lot?

It would be a nice change for laws to come in place slowly, compared to the vast array of random here. Do you never get any rapidly-run-through fashionable laws about recent newspaper issues?

A lot of them are crazy crazy crazy. Like the guy who ran off to Argentina with his girlfriend while telling everyone he was hiking the Appalachian trail.

Oh deary me :D Who votes for these people? (Probably the same sort who vote for comedians like Boris Johnson)

And since states have a lot of rights, is there a state-level government with its own elections?

That Electoral College stuff sounds insanely complicated. It's a shame about Al Gore, he seemed clever and useful.

Re: US politics - please correct me

[abluestocking]

Congressmen do move to Washington. They often get rooms together, or live in someone's basement, if they don't have money to buy an apartment/house (Washington is very expensive). Some have been known to sleep in their office.

How often congressmen visit their constituencies depends. They do tend to fly around a lot though. They're also very concerned with trying to bring home "pork" to their constituencies, which can make them popular.

I'm not sure about fashionable laws, but I think they're less common? It's hard to get things done quickly, especially when the Parties are fighting.

State-level government: Yes, states do have their own government. Governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, etc., along with mini-Congresses (they're called Legislatures or Assemblies - same two-house rule). This is more important for states like California, for instance, with its top-ten world economy, than little piddly states.