this post was submitted on 22 May 2024
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[–] theinspectorst@kbin.social 4 points 5 months ago (7 children)

It's a corrupt convention but it wasn't always the case. An important reform by the 2010-15 coalition government was the Fixed Term Parliaments Act, which took this incredibly important decision out of the prime minister's partisan hands and have elections on a predictable 5 year cycle (barring the government falling or a supermajority for early elections).

After Boris Johnson won the 2019 election though, he set about dismantling checks and balances such as this. He also changed the electoral system for mayoral elections to First Past the Post (with no consultation or referendum - which the Tories have always insisted was needed to change the electoral system away from FPTP...) because FPTP tends to favour Tories.

[–] Fisk400@feddit.nu 4 points 5 months ago (6 children)

Wait? Is the current political leader allowed to just change how votes are counted for the next election?! Is this why the Wikipedia article for how election in England work is just incomprehensible garbage?

[–] Nighed@sffa.community 5 points 5 months ago (4 children)

Everything is eventually decided by the majority of votes in the house of commons. Even if you put a law in saying that the pm can't do this without a 80% vote, that law itself could be repealed with a 50% vote.

Theoretically it would only require a 50% vote to remove elections or something crazy. (Although in practice that might not get past the king who technically has the final say)

There is no formal constitution that has more protection like in some countries.

[–] Fisk400@feddit.nu 2 points 5 months ago

Holy shit, no wonder the empire is fucking dying.

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