Ministers In The UK…Not Just Toffs And Princlies
Just to prove I’m not dead, I’m going to do some edu-ma-cation on how difficult it may be to take over the world with a starting point in the UK.
Politics is something I have more than a passive interest in, what with being formerly employed in governmental work and planning to rule the world with an iron fist. I realise though, that it can be quite confusing when I comment about things like “local authority” or “council” for the actual scale of impact to be recognised by those not natively familiar with the layout of power in this country.
I thought therefore that I’d provide a snapshot, albeit undetailed, of how things work in theory in this country from the top down.
Central Government or Parliament
The one in control of the nation as a whole and all it’s actions. Parliament is made of two houses, the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Lords are appointed by previous and current governments, whereas the Commons is made up of democratically elected Members of Parliament (MPs).
Everybody in the Commons, including the Prime Minister, is a currently elected official. All MPs represent a consituency, and there are 646 constituencies in the UK, with each constituency being a subdivision of a (now somewhat outdated since legislative changes) borough council area. Larger cities may have multiple MPs to represent their population (for example Bristol East, Bristol South, Bristol West, Bristol Northwest, and Kingswood are all part of Bristol), while some small rural areas may be grouped together to elect a single MP (for example the MP for Weston-super-Mare, was voted for people from the town and from the villages of Kewstoke, Locking, Hutton, Banwell, Winscombe, Congresbury, Churchill and Blagdon, and several smaller villages).
Although there is some change between areas, and there is no minimum or maximum stipulated requirement, the avarage population of a constituency is around 74,000.
Whereas an MP is usually elected on a local basis, they serve nationally as part of their position. The role of the MP in Parliament is to act as a representative voice of the people. They vote on laws, debate on practices and policies, and raise issues of local and national interest. They can also help to work out personal issues with central government offices, such as problems with local schools or welfare queries.
Of note here, is that the ruling party (the party that forms Government) is made from the party with the majority of seats (elected MPs) in the House of Commons, with the second most forming the official opposition party. Therefore, if you voted for an MP on a local issue, you also by default voted for their party on a National scale. Your votes are only recorded in that election for the MP, not for Government as a whole. This can, at times lead to tactical voting, to try to improve national standing of a party, or for voters to choose either to vote solely on a national or local level.
Parliament MPs of the Government can become Ministers. Senior ministers form the Cabinet, often having the title Secretary of State, and hold direct oversight of a specific branch of the Government, for example Health or Education. Their departments may also include junior ministers, or Minister of State, and even junior ministers, Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State. For example, the Department for Health consists of Secretary of State for Health (Cabinet member); the junior ministers Minister of State for Public Health, Minister of State for Health Services; and three Under-secretaries.
Central government adminsters most of the benefits, welfare and tax credit payments in the country. They get their money through the various taxes, such as Income Tax, National Insurance contributions, Road Tax and Value Added Tax (Sales tax).
Local Government or Local Authorities, Councils
Local Government is where things get a bit stickier, because the local aspect holds two types of tier (depending on the area). One type of tier contains three levels, that of County, District and Parish; whereas the other is Unitary and Parish. A Unitary council simply merges the County and District together to form a single entity, and operates at it’s highest at County level.
Therefore, one County Council may have many District Councils, who themselves have many Parish Councils. A Unitary councils will just have multiple Parish Councils.
As the name suggest, a Parish Council originally came from the churches parish, or holding, though boundaries have changed in a lot of the original parishes. A parish council will often represent a village, they can become town councils by making a resolution to say they are responsible for the upkeep of local facilities (parks, playgrounds, public toilets, street lights, village halls, footpaths, cemetaries), consultation on local planning decisions and sponsoring events.
Parish councils have elected Councillors, mostly volunteers from the local community, and receive a precept funding from the council tax (a tax on the value of your home, not income) paid by the residents to the District/Unitary council that the Parish falls under.
The higher councils, for example Unitary and District, offer increased services to the public, most of which are stipulated by central government as a required, or statutory, provision of the council. These services include, but are not limited to: police and fire service; recycling, refuse collection and street cleaning; leisure facilities and parks; tourism; planning and developments; facilities and grants for disabled, the elderly and children.
District Councillors are also elected by their wards (areas within the District) and get paid an allowance for the job, which they get to vote on pay rises to.
Local Government administers Council Tax benefit (which actually is a deduction from a bill, not a payment) and Housing Benefit (used for people on low income to pay their rent).
An MP does not hold sway over a local authority, and any matters pertaining to their operation is instead directed through the Councillor elected by the ward of the resident.
Applied Example
So, for me, I am currently safe-housed in Weston-super-Mare, that means I am overseen by:
Local Services and Government
Weston-super-Mare Town Council (Parish Council, led by Town Mayor/Council Leader and Councillors)
North Somerset District Council (Unitary Council, led by Council Leader/Chair and Councillors for each ward)
National Services and Government
Weston-super-Mare MP (Constituency Representative to Government)
Parliament (National Government)
A final word from Boris Johnson MP
Egads! They don’t make it simple do they? As I heard in a movie once “It’s like an onion” layers on layers.I’m glad you can sort it out my friend because it confuses me.
I’m glad that your doing well though, like Dio said we worry when your not around.
Well, best way to look at it is:
Town Council – Vote for the Person/Party with the best hair
Unitary Council – Vote for the Person/Party you most trust will collect your rubbish and not raise your house tax, so that you can kick yourself about it later
Member of Parliament – Vote on National Policy you most like, regardless that even if they win you will never see it implemented.
That helps, thanks
Wow….now I know there’s a reason politics don’t stick with me. ^^;; Most of that went waaaaayyyy over my head. But in all fairness, I don’t really understand US government at all, and I’ve taken at least 3 whole years of government classes to understand it.
I still have no idea who’s going to be our president, but hopefully things can’t get any worse than they already are (and to be honest, things aren’t bad at all). Yeah. I’m a terrible American. ^^;;
Um, look: puppies. Yeah.
I thought you just needed the Archangel Network and a steady drum beat.
Good lord, that’s a mess. No more confusing than ours though, I guess. I took a field trip in the 11th grade to DC and met Strom Thurmond once. He was out of his mind then, and that was years before he died, but he was older than dirt. I asked him what he thought about term limits and he went off on some pre-rehearsed answer about a filibuster or some such nonsense. I got to see Ted Kennedy too. The funny thing is, I was born and raised in SC and have lived here most of my life but I had to go to DC to meet Strom. He was the very personification of the backwards, “good old boy” mentality of the politicians around here that gives this state such a bad name. Good riddance, I say.
Anyway, thanks loads for the crash course. That’s a lot to take in, but it sounds like you’ve got a pretty solid grasp of it all. I’m glad that I lived in England in ’99, so it was before George W., so I didn’t have to explain that one to everyone. I would have spent the whole time there reassuring everyone that I had nothing to do with it. Although, I got the sense that most of the people I went to school with there were not the biggest fans of Tony Blair either.
Guise, you’ve never been to London? Wow. I went there, just passing through, like 4 times. I was surprised to find that some of the guys in my flat had never been either. I can’t believe that. I mean, no matter where you are in the country, you’re not that far from it. I guess it’s a perspective thing. Driving 2 or 3 hours to us is not really a big deal and we just kind of do it on a whim to go somewhere, but most of the time you never even leave the state. But I guess if you live in a country where you can drive the entire length of the country in a few hours, I guess spending 2 hours to drive to London is a much bigger deal. Plus, you guys can just as easily just jaunt on over to Paris or Germany if you want. That’s pretty badass. The best I can do in an afternoon is go to Charleston or something.
Oh, on a totally unrelated note, Jake Gyllenhall is staying in town in a hotel just up the street. He, Tracy Morgan, and Jessica Biel are shooting a movie here for the next 3 months. I might get some PA work on it. I’ve worked on most of the ones shot here in town in the last few years, so we’ll see.
I live in central CT, so I am within two hours of both Boston and NYC. I never go to either. I guess I have it in my head that it’s too expensive for my family to really enjoy them. Not to mention all the traffic, pollution and crime and stuff. Not worth the trouble.
I just keep my head below the tree line.
Doho, if I had the Archangel Network and that version of the Captain Scarlett Cloudbase, I wouldn’t just be aiming for a seat in Parliament!
DJ D, the nearest I’ve come to going to London was to take part in a political lobby that was cancelled at the last minute.
Funny thing, from my local airport, it takes less time to reach France than it does to get a train to London, and it’s far cheaper. Travel in the UK, we don’t actually do that much I guess, if something is more than an hour and a half it’s often not worth it, and as I don’t drive myself my options are rather limited as public transport is an expensive, time-consuming monstrosity.
FM, most businesses that are spread across the UK, tend to have a set higher payscale solely for working in London, because the cost of living in the city is just so much that a standard salary wouldn’t even come close to surviving on.
Guise, Yeah that’s what I kind of gleamed from everyone when I was living over there. Most of them didn’t have cars and I personally walked or used trains or busses everytime I needed to go somewhere (not that I would have been allowed to drive anything anyway). I think I only rode in a car like twice the whole time I was there. Unless you live in a large city over here you pretty much have to have a car or you’re screwed. I can’t imagine having to rely on any kind of public transport or cabs around here to get somewhere every day. Owning a car would end up being a lot cheaper in the long run. I do think it’s kind of funny that you guys think anything over an hour and a half is a chore. We’ll just up and take a 2 hour trip to the beach on a Saturday just on a whim and not think twice about it. Again, I guess it’s a matter of perspective. When it takes you several days on the road to travel from one end of the country to another, 2 hours is really nothing.
I’m really bummed about my lack of travel in this country. I’ve traveled more in Europe than I have here. The farthest south I’ve been is Georgia and the farthest north is New Jersey, but that was just for a layover to England and back. Iv’e spent some time in DC and Maryland and a few states in between here and there, but it’s all been on the East Coast. I haven’t been out west at all. I think the farthest west I’ve been is Tennessee and that doesn’t really count at all. I really want to do a cross country road trip and just drive out to Las Vegas or something and stop at a bunch of places along the way.
Guise, Sorry for the double post, but I just thought of something else. What was the political rally you were going to go to London for?
Also, a friend of mine has introduced me to several British comedies that I was previously unaware of–The Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box, and The IT Crowd. It seems like they all have the same 3 or 4 guys in them and they’re pretty good. The Mighty Boosh is some of the trippiest, weirdest stuff I’ve seen in a long time, and I don’t think it would fly here (maybe on BBC America or Adult Swim), mostly because TV execs here wouldn’t have the balls to put something that different on the air.
I’ve travelled up and down the England part of the UK a fair bit, mostly for work, and often times was driven by a colleague, but I prefer travelling by train by car. I don’t travel well, I get fidgetty or anxious, not travel sick but at some point during the trip it can be almost guaranteed I’ll be stuck with a realisation “wow, it’s probably a few miles until somewhere I can pee” and then I’ll start focusing on how petrol consumption can be tied to urgency to pee. That or I’ll bring bad mix CDs.
The London trip was for the trade union while I was in the governments employ, they were doing mass redundancies and they were gathering people from across the UK to attend Parliament and meet with their MPs.
The lobbying plan was quite organised here, due to numbers, so we could only try to talk to our own MP and mine wasn’t due to be in the capital that day, so the people from our office ended up being cut from the lobby, so to reduce overcrowding and instead got a visit from the MP.
Just on price of travel, one way by train to London is around £50 on day of travel and takes 2.5hrs, whereas a flight to Oslo from my local airport is £30 and takes 3hrs. I can visit the capital of Norway for less than my own, and for half an hour longer journey. I speak as much of their language as I do the language of a Central Londoner, so I might be in with a chance.
If it makes you guys feel better (and make me feel worse), the most exotic place I’ve been to is Victoria, British Colombia. I visited the gardens there; they were amazing, with the exception of the rose garden, which was trimmed and the bushes were headless. ^^;;
I go to San Francisco on occasion (baseball, friends, shopping), I usually go to LA for Disneyland in the summer (Father’s Day, my dad loves it), and sometimes Sacramento (once in a blue moon). I’m a homebody, I love staying in San Jose. Its got a huge gamer contingency.
Dio you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, the furthest west I’ve been is Salt Lake City, furthest east is probably my home town Nashville, TN and the furthest south is Houston, TX. For my vacation I usually go back to either IL or TX to see family. Nothing exotic in any of those places. O_o
Guise, Yeah, I know what you mean about the travelling thing. I kind of get anxious if I have to be cooped up in a car with other people for a long period of time. I actually like road trips if I’m driving a nice car (something I haven’t done in a long time) and I have something good to listen to, and most importantly if I’m alone. I don’t mind if we kind of go in a caravan with several cars, but I have to be the only one in my car. Unfortunately, I haven’t driven a decent car in so long that it’s not even something I have to worry about. I have to drive to visit my family next weekend which is about an hour and a half away and I’m kind of worried if the car’s going to make it there and back. I REALLY need some new brakes, so it should be interesting.
Well, since Guise lives in Weston-super-Mare, then maybe that’s where I should go should I visit the UK…..XD If the Weston wiki is any indication, then there are some neat things in your hometown. But I honestly just love the sea, so the beach would be a huge draw.
Once while my mom, stepdad and my sisters were coming back from Disneyland, our transmission kinda failed and we had to drive back on the Grapevine/Highway 5 in 2nd gear, getting passed by mack trucks. Interesting trip if I may say so; we left at 5, and didn’t get back to Manteca (about 2 hours from San Jose) til nearly 2 am.
I love car trips, namely because I don’ drive and can space out w/ my iPod during the long hours. I also love talking on trips so, I prefer to have talkative carmates rather than quiet ones, or I’ll just lapse into Ignore Mode w/ said iPod. I can’t really sleep in the car since I can get carsick. I have never found out if I get seasick however, and if I do, that would make cruises quite unpleasant.
DJ D: Forget Adult Swim. Those assholes took Shin-chan off and replaced it w/ all their retarded in-house cartoon stuff (I love Harvey Birdman, but if I catch Squidbillies or Aqua Teens one more time, I’mma shoot someone). I mean, it wouldn’t be as bad if Venture Bros was back on, but who knows when their next season’s due out. That and their bumps are really obnoxious now. I want my Shin-chan back!
Oh man….i need sleeeeep.
Dio, I’m with you on Harvey Birdman and Venture Brothers, but I’m afraid we’re going to have to agree to disagree on Squidbillies. I honestly think it is possibly the funniest thing on television right now. I know you’ll hate me for saying that, but I love it. Maybe it’s just because I’m from the south and really get all the refrences and everything, or maybe not, but it’s my new favorite thing on TV.
Adult Swim was great with Robot Chicken, Sealab and Harvey Birdman, but I’ve yet to catch a whole episode of Venture Brothers or Squidbillies. Aqua Teen was good when it started out, but after the uniqueness ran out, then it just couldn’t grasp me much longer.
Also, Dio, I’d give you a guided tour of both our attractions…as long as they aren’t closed for repairs!
I miss Sealab but it really lost it’s appeal after the actor who did the voice of Murphy died and they brought on the new captain. Robot Chicken is always good for a laugh and so is Harvey Birdman. Nothing like seeing childhood icons put into a courtrooom situation. When Venture Brothers first started I couldn’t stand it but when I actually watched an episode with a friend of mine it started to grow on me, Patrick Warburton has a voice for cartoons I guess.
Sorry DJ D I’ve tried to watch Squidbillies on several occasions and just can’t get into that one.
Its prolly cuz I’m a Californian girl, so the southern humor is lost on me. ^^;;; No hate, honest, but there’s a line of retardedness that the show crosses sometimes that just pulls me out of it. Metalocalypse does it too. Also, the animation quality on those shows really drives me up a fucking wall….XD I wish I could turn off the animator in me, really.
You know who i miss? Space Ghost and his Cartoon Planet. Not SG:coast to coast (I miss that too), but the random Cartoon Planet segments really made Cartoon Network. Like, the commercials they used to run, with the 8 degress of separation of Velma, or the Super Friends w/ Powerpuff Girls, or even the great parking lot face off between Speed Racer and Fred Flintstone. MAN, those were the days. Before CN sold out and started to kinda suck. Chowder’s fucking hilarious, but someone needs to pull the plug on Outta Jimmy’s Head. The acting on that show is nothing short of painful and embarrassing.
And Ben 10….still on the fence, but its not as bad as I initially thought.
Guise: I’d love a tour. ^^ Man, I’d show you the great things where I live, which is really the arcade at school, and Great America. lol
Yeah, the thing about Squidbillies is it’s a lot funnier if you’re from here. It’s supposed to take place in North Georgia, which is very close to where I’m at now. There’s this whole sort of culture in the Carolinas and Georgia that’s almost it’s own little world. It’s kind of hard to explain if you’re not from here. In fact, Unknown Hinson, who does the voice of Early, is from Charlotte, so it’s even more genuine. The weird thing is, that’s his real speaking voice. I know people who have met him and he talks like that all the time. The show constantly makes references to little towns and things that you just wouldn’t pick up on unless you knew something about this area. Plus, it’s almost scary how much some of the characters really hit close to home. Everything from the slang to the accents to the personalities, even though it’s obviously distorted and over the top, is spot on. People really do talk like that around here–not everyone, but we all have them in our family; that one branch that you just don’t talk about that much. Everyone from here, whether they want to admit it or not, has that one white trash branch in their family. God knows I’ve got my share.
This isn’t the best analogy because I think Seinfeld is MUCH more accesable, but even though nearly everyone finds Seinfeld funny and it’s personally my favorite show ever, I think it would mean more to me and would register on a different level if I were from New York and Jewish. Not that you have to be to find it funny, but you would “get” it a little more. Same with Squidbillies, but to a bigger extreme. You kind of have to be from here to get it. But yeah, I totally see your argument. I think if I were born and raised somewhere else I probably wouldn’t find the humor in it either.
As for tours, that would be great. I bet Guise could show us all a grand old time if we made it up there. It would be a trip to have some of you guys end up down here too. We could go out to at The Beacon (a really famous restaurant in my home town that’s gotten a lot of national recognition), and take a jaunt down to Myrtle Beach and a haunted tour of Charleston. That would be a scene.
Dio, Cartoon Planet rocks, so much so that I had to download them all not so long ago to make sure I could watch them. I just love Brak though, so it’s all good.
The old CN bumpers were great. I like the Survivor one they did, the Staylongers. Cartoon Cartoon tribe vs. Hanna Barbera tribe. Though, the one I really want to find is the Agents of F.E.A.R bumpers, with the rules stating only higher ranking officers are allowed facial hair.
As for Ben 10. I could preach quite a few virtues of this series, but I’ll stick to two ‘cool’ factors: 1) Ben/Gwen OTIP, 2) Closest to 80s old school for toy lines.
Ben 10 manages to have a range of characters to collect that can be sold individual, can have distinct personalities to make them favourites, introduces and supports merchandised characters in media, provides equipment for emulation play, has toys that potentially could bridge gender market.
Oh, and it’s also quite entertaining. Gwen is cute too. She also reminds me of Batgirl from the new Batman cartoon.
I think Billy and Mandy is quite good though, as far as CN products go. Granted it’s started to rely a bit more on Billy’s stupidity for plot points increasingly, but the odd stories that parody horror films are very good at times. Plus, Mandy is the sort of daughter I’d be proud to be called in to the principals office to ‘discuss the behaviour’ of. Though, I’d probably have named her Lilith or Lolita, those are pretty girl names, right?
DJ, I’m not exactly white trash, but I think I fill the role for the extended family. They don’t really gel with us, and we don’t really care much. Family-wise, more Sarah Connor than Roseanne Conner.