UK Government for Dummies... and Americans

The UK recently had a snap election to decide which party should be in power. But how do UK elections work? Are they at all similar to how the US runs things? Let's compare the two and see if we can't figure it out.

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Photo Credits -
Stick Figures done by Poethewondercat

Music Credits -
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License

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Hashtags: #government #brexit #uk #london #may #election #eu #theresamay #labour #snp #tories #cor #votelabour #america #britain

[KnowingBetter]

CORRECTION/CLARIFICATION: The parties I state are "against Brexit" were against it before the referendum. Now that the people voted in favor of Brexit, they are for a "soft" Brexit, as opposed to the "hard" Brexit that the Conservatives seem to be in favor of. The difference between the two is complicated, but mostly centers around trade with the EU.

[jjwebster]

Just to correct you as a British citizen, Scotland and Wales have their own governments that are semi autonomous from Parliament. England doesn't have it's own separate government.

[ejcmoorhouse]

It should be pointed out the role the Queen is overly exaggerated, all appointments such as the lords are recommended to the crown by the Prime Minister of the day. The Queen whether limited by law, convention or just a sense of duty will not act without her government's approval. If you look back at the history of the UK government it all came about as a way of limiting the power of monarch. Britain sort of has an unspoken arrangement where the Queen and her family get to rule forever and a day just as long as they do everything the Parliament and the government tells them to do. This means that actually most power is really in the hands of the Prime Minister.

[Cemtexify]

"Ever since the Brexit vote they have been pushing for independence" m8 the Scottish National Party (SNP) are an independence party, they've been pushing for it since they were formed not just since Brexit

[whelp]

Sorry man, but there are a few but big mistakes:

- Labour is not against Brexit, but wants a different approach (the soft Brexit)
- This vote wasn't really a re-vote on Brexit but rather a failed attempt to solidify majority of the conservative government as they had an extremely good lead in polls at the time of the announcement of the snap election

[Fanboy]

Great video, but I think the power of the Queen is overstated. Most of her powers, such as appointing ambassadors or giving royal assent to laws, are done with 'the advice of Cabinet', which essentially means Cabinet decides and she rubber stamps it.

She could technically still exercise these powers independently, but I think realistically if she did there would be a major constitutional crisis.

[tom.parryjones]

The Isle of Man shouldn’t be coloured red in the map at the start of the video. It’s not part of England - in fact, it’s not part of the UK at all, merely a Crown Dependency, like Jersey and Guernsey

[TheGalgut]

scotland has been pushing for independence since before brexit. they had their own referendum about it and everything

[danielkelly]

9:25 Also worth mentioning that the DUP is a Northern Ireland only party and that their main purpose is to represent people who want NI to stay a part of the UK instead of joining the Republic of Ireland.

[monizdm]

Generally very good. But a vote of no confidence is not like impeachment. Constitutionally, an impeachment is for "high crimes and misdemeanors". A vote of no confidence is always about policy, and implies that the government can no longer command a majority in parliament.

[skizzik]

2017- almost 1k subscribers
2019- almost 430k subscribers
Solid growth

[joshuamccarthy]

Just a small point.
A majority is not actually 326 seats in most elections.

It is (650-x)÷2 seats where x is the number of seats won by Sinn Féin (this time 7) because Sinn Féin is an abstentionist party.

[ParkerDaiGames]

I recommend watching Jay Foreman if people want to know a little more, he's funny, education and his videos are to the point

[tallthinkev]

England does not have it's own parliament.

[Calum_S]

Your analogy of the countries in the UK being like States and they are subordinate to the UK Government is slightly inaccurate, because England doesn't have its own parliament - laws for England are made in Westminster, the same as laws that affect the UK as a whole. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own governments or national assemblies that can make laws that have been devolved to them from Westminster.

[ronster]

Oh, by the way, the Scots have been pushing for independence since before Brexit, with a vote on independence in 2014 giving a strong answer of "No", with 55% of the ~3.6 million valid votes (i.e. not ballot papers that had been messed around with, like writing a new option on for example) voting against a split. Since Brexit, however, the SNP (Scottish National Party) have been pushing for a second referendum on whether or not they should split from the UK.
Also, if you want to know all 8* parties that won seats, they are (in order of seats won, then location in which they were candidates):
Conservatives (317, UK-wide)
Labour (262, UK-wide)
Scottish National Party (35, Scotland only)
Liberal Democrats (12, UK-wide)
Democratic Unionist Party (10, Northern Ireland only)
Sinn Féin (7, NI only)
Plaid Cymru (4, Wales only)
Green Party (1, UK-wide)
*There was also one independent candidate, Sylvia Hermon (formerly a member of the Ulster Unionist Party), who won in the Northern Ireland constituency of North Down.

[steverust]

I think your overplaying the queens powers; she basically doesnt have any, and her role is mostly ceremonial and traditional. She certainly cannot declare war independently of government.

[ENZUH_OFICIAL]

u had only a thousand subs 1 year ago? wow!

[graup]

Oh, btw, to anyone interested in the German system: it's mostly the same except all our officials are elected (either directly or indirectly or they are the president whose election is ... weird) and our election system is different (and our army is entirely controlled by parliament). This is because our government was modelled on that of the UK.

[markmccall]

It's worth noting that every power you attributed to the queen (appointing life peers etc) is only done on governments (or prime minister's) advice