So, Britain...new prime minister, eh?

[Ack]

Ok, so the House of Lords are appointees, and the House of Commons is elected by the people. The HoL is over the HoC, and the Queen is over the HoL, though I've never heard anything about her using her power beyond a charity or two(not saying it doesn't happen, just that it doesn't get talked about in Alabama).

So, where exactly does the Prime Minister come in? Is he technically over the House of Commons, similar to our Speaker of the House, or is he more involved in a separate branch of government, like how our President heads the Executive Branch?

[bobbynewmarkiii]

Ok, so the House of Lords are appointees, and the House of Commons is elected by the people. The HoL is over the HoC, and the Queen is over the HoL, though I've never heard anything about her using her power beyond a charity or two(not saying it doesn't happen, just that it doesn't get talked about in Alabama).

Yep

So, where exactly does the Prime Minister come in? Is he technically over the House of Commons, similar to our Speaker of the House, or is he more involved in a separate branch of government, like how our President heads the Executive Branch?

We don't get to elect the Prime Minister, he is the leader of the government - usually leader of the party that won - in this case David Cameron was leader of the Tories in opposition, and is now Prime Minister, and Nick Cleg, who was leader of the Lib-Dems in opposition, has got the deputy PM job because of the coallition formed to create a majority government (i.e. more than 50% of seats, so that they can be sure of winning decisions put to the house). He is technically just a minister, he only gets 1 vote like every other minister, but he is leader of the government and will represent the government. We have a 'speaker of the house' as well, but his is more of a chairman role. Technically he should be neutral, and will not take part in votes of the house, but the speaker will have been a member of one party or other before becoming speaker - the current speaker is a Tory. I don't know enough about US politics to say whether this equates to any of your positions, would be interested to hear...

Interesting thing happened this year - the main parties agree that the speaker's constituency seat will not be contested, but lots of people are pissed with the main parties at the moment because of the expenses scandal (loads of minsters were taking the piss with their expenses claims) and some indipendant candidates went againt the speaker in his home constituency - he still won though!

The PM leads the Cabinet. This is a group of government ministers (the new cabinet is 23 ministers) responsible for particular areas of government (e.g. dept. of Justice, Foreign Secretary, Chancellor, Department for education, defence secretary & Department for Busines, Information and Skills (who I work for)) The individual department heads are called 'Secretary of State' for (education, justice, BIS etc).

[Incognito D]

One of these days I'd love to see the Queen flex the muscle that she technically has. Like how the current PM had to ask her to accept his resignation. I'd love to see her decline the resignation. Or how she technically can fuck with Canada, according to their constitution.

Haha yeah that would be great Just inform Australia and Canada that their independence is being revoked and they're being re-colonised. While we're at it, might as well try and take back America, beginning with New England. The Queen could be an absolute bad-ass despot if she wanted to be!

[MrPopo]

One of these days I'd love to see the Queen flex the muscle that she technically has. Like how the current PM had to ask her to accept his resignation. I'd love to see her decline the resignation. Or how she technically can fuck with Canada, according to their constitution.

Haha yeah that would be great Just inform Australia and Canada that their independence is being revoked and they're being re-colonised. While we're at it, might as well try and take back America, beginning with New England. The Queen could be an absolute bad-ass despot if she wanted to be!

Except that there's nothing in the American constitution that says "we still listen to the Queen".

[ZeroAX]

So nobody knows why they closed the mines?

they found a massive pocket of energy and they were worried Britain would time travel back to 1960s during a Beatles concert.

Lost reference for those who didn't get it.

[Incognito D]

Except that there's nothing in the American constitution that says "we still listen to the Queen".

I know. Don't worry - I was talking about an invasion!

[Octopod]

Except that there's nothing in the American constitution that says "we still listen to the Queen".

I know. Don't worry - I was talking about an invasion!

Good luck with that one.