Change of Prime Minister

[Dassie]

Does anybody else think that when a governing party changes its PM there should be a General Election? After all, the people voted for the Labour Party with Tony as PM but not for Gordon Brown to take over and run (maybe put an "i" in that word ????) the Country.

[LazyGun]

Nope.

[galaxy]

I think we should vote for the Prime Minister, not the party. Like They do in the USA. (They get it right occasionally)

How can we vote for a Party and a Prime MInister when they could change it whenever they want.

Best thing i heard today.... My 15 year old son walked in when they were talking about it on the news. He said "Is Derren Brown going to be Prime Minister?"

[jno]

no. People vote for a candidate. They may choose the candidate according to which party he/she represents, but it's not up to them to choose the leader, that's party business.

[jno]

just to expand on that, in the USA they vote for a head of state - that would be like British voters electing the queen rather than Blair. The US equivalent of Blair is the party leaders in the Congress. But what they sometimes do is elect someone from one party to be president and the other party to have the most seats in Congress. Or even more confusingly, one party to control the Senate and the other to control the House of Representatives. (At the moment, they're all Republicans; that could change after elections coming in November.) That's why congressmen wasted so much time and money trying to impeach Clinton: they were from the other party. This isn't necessarily a great model to follow.

[bernardo]

No

[cretinz]

Blair said he would serve a full term. I think we are entitled to a general election.

[MustafaTickl]

When the Prime Minister packs the job in the Deputy Prime Minister should automatically become Prime Minister.

[galaxy]

John Prescott. Lead the Country.
Me. Leave the Country!

[jake-the-peg]

We didn't have a general election when Major took over from Margaret Thatcher and we didn't have one when Callaghan took over from Wilson.

So there's no reason.

However I do agree with galaxy about electing the prime minister

I mean we have 2 heads of state (I know technically that's not true) and we don't get to vote for either!

[Siamsal]

No. You are voting for your local MP (who presumably stays) not the PM.