# Question about British Parliament **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 27, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379 "2004-02-27T00:08:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/1 "2004-02-27T00:08:18Z")
From [here](http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=465115§ion=news): > [@](#): > > Bob Worcester of pollsters MORI said Blair remains favourite to win a third term at next year’s election but with a halved majority of 60-80 in the 659-seat parliament, from 161 now. Can somebody please explain this? The numbers aren’t clicking. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/2 "2004-02-27T00:13:07Z")
> [@Eleusis](#): > > From [here](http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=465115§ion=news): > Can somebody please explain this? The numbers aren’t clicking. His majority (the number of seats he has more than the others) is predicted to half from it’s current level of 161 to about 70. He currently has 161 more seats than the opposition. ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/3 "2004-02-27T00:18:05Z")
Click! Thanks **Lobsang**. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/4 "2004-02-27T00:21:08Z")
From [here](http://www.parliament.uk/directories/hcio/stateparties.cfm), ia list of the parliamentary seats as of January 4th: Labour 408 Conservative 163 Liberal Democrat 54 Scottish National Party/Plaid Cymru 9 (SNP 5/PC 4) Ulster Unionist 5 Democratic Unionist 6 Sinn Fein 4 (Have not taken their seats) Social Democratic & Labour 3 Independent 1 Independent Conservative 1 Independent Labour 1 Speaker & 3 Deputies 4 (Do not normally vote) Total 659 Government majority 161 The government majority is how many more seats they have than all the other parties combined. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/5 "2004-02-27T00:22:35Z")
Pooh. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/6 "2004-02-27T00:23:36Z")
Just a bit more: The House of Commons aspect of the Parliament has 659 members, each representing a constituency in the UK. Of those, the Labour Party of which Blair is Leader has an _absolute_ majority – that is a majority over all the other non-Labour members combined – of 161 members. There are many other Party’s in the Parliament, so it isn’t as clear-cut a two-horse deal as is, say, the US Congress. That absolute majority is projected to half to 60-80. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/7 "2004-02-27T00:24:46Z")
Bah ! Baby keeping you up ? ---
**Author:** ![Eleusis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Eleusis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleusis)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/8 "2004-02-27T00:26:22Z")
Hmmm… Let me take this opportunity to ask a much broader question. How does the election work? The above leads to me believe there are no general elections for Prime Minister? Do people only vote for members of parliament and then parliament votes in the PM? Are the 651 chairs of parliament comparable to our House of Representatives? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/9 "2004-02-27T00:27:13Z")
I am sorry, but, “party’s”? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/10 "2004-02-27T00:29:19Z")
> [@Eleusis](#): > > Hmmm… Let me take this opportunity to ask a much broader question. > > How does the election work? The above leads to me believe there are no general elections for Prime Minister? Do people only vote for members of parliament and then parliament votes in the PM? Are the 651 chairs of parliament comparable to our House of Representatives? Just an educated guess but… A party votes for it’s leaders. The country indirectly votes for the party by voting for their local MPs. If a constituency becomes a Labour one, (the labour candidate got the most votes) then that is one seat more for Labour… ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/11 "2004-02-27T00:31:29Z")
Don’t ask me how it works in the Isle of Man (the oldest govornment in the world) because I haven’t a clue. ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/12 "2004-02-27T00:33:29Z")
How does the election work? The country is divided into constituencies. People in those constituencies vote from a group of candidates standing. The candidate who gets most votes is the new MP for that constituency. The above leads to me believe there are no general elections for Prime Minister? Do people only vote for members of parliament and then parliament votes in the PM? The party with most MPs becomes the government. The leader of that party becomes PM. L\_C: Oh, yeah. ---
**Author:** ![Jabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@Jabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jabba)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/13 "2004-02-27T00:34:42Z")
Simple version: After an election, the largest party tends to have an overall majority, that is more than half the seats in the Commons (in the 2001 election, there were 659 seats available, so an overall majority would be 330 MPs). When this happens, the largest party forms the government and its leader is Prime Minister. The remaining parties form Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, and the leader of the second largest party is Leader of the opposition. Things can be more complicated, though. If no party has an overall majority, parties will try to form a coalition. That is, two or more parties who have a majority between them will form a government together. This is much less common in our first-past-the-post system than in countries which have proportional representation. ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/14 "2004-02-27T01:03:03Z")
> [@Eleusis](#): > > How does the election work? The above leads to me believe there are no general elections for Prime Minister? Do people only vote for members of parliament and then parliament votes in the PM? Are the 651 chairs of parliament comparable to our House of Representatives? Each Party elects its own ongoing (until ousted) Leader – nothing to do with the electorate. So it’s quite different from, say, the US. At election time, the voters in each constituency choose from a list of candidates (as you do), each Party having one candidate per constituency (as you do); hence voters may choose to vote for the local representative because they like the national leader and or the national policies of same, or they may vote for the local representative because they like his/her local agenda, or both or all or none. Whoever wins the most votes wins the constituency and becomes one of the 659. **Lobsang** – it’s dyslexia. No need to be “sorry”. ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/15 "2004-02-27T01:07:36Z")
> [@London\_Calling](#): > > **Lobsang** – it’s dyslexia. No need to be “sorry”. OK, no need to take it personally. How was I to know? ---
**Author:** ![seaworthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@seaworthy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seaworthy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/16 "2004-02-27T05:27:53Z")
That’s kinda weird that you guys have so many parties over there. I’m used to 2, with maybe one or two odd ones that nobody bothers to vote for anyway. And is it true that members of Parliament can personally insult each other during debates? So, for example, if I didn’t like what that Liberal Democrat was saying, I could call him a stupid great prat? Could I say anything really vulgar? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/17 "2004-02-27T05:32:29Z")
> [@seaworthy](#): > > That’s kinda weird that you guys have so many parties over there. I’m used to 2, with maybe one or two odd ones that nobody bothers to vote for anyway. > > And is it true that members of Parliament can personally insult each other during debates? So, for example, if I didn’t like what that Liberal Democrat was saying, I could call him a stupid great prat? Could I say anything really vulgar? They tend to be very polite with their insults. There never seems to be any genuine outward hostility in the house of commons. ---
**Author:** ![seaworthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@seaworthy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seaworthy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/18 "2004-02-27T05:38:35Z")
how can you be polite with your insults? I thought insults, by definition, were rude. And how rude is “stupid great prat” anyway? We don’t talk like that in America. 😃 First of all, we’d say “great big prat”, if we said it at all. But over here, if I called someone a prat, I’d just get a blank look. I don’t even know what it means, I just know it’s not exactly nice. ---
**Author:** ![seaworthy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a8b319/32.png) [@seaworthy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seaworthy)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/19 "2004-02-27T05:39:37Z")
Oh wow, it’s actually in my dictionary. It means buttocks? ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2004, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379/20 "2004-02-27T05:42:09Z")
> [@seaworthy](#): > > how can you be polite with your insults? With all due respect, the right honourable gentleman is an ass. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-british-parliament/231379.md?page=2)