A Piece of History

Over the past month, Britain has undergone an election, a hung parliament, and a coalition between the Conservative and Liberal Democratic Parties.  Witnessing an election in a different country is absolutely fascinating.  I have to thank Ben Kelly for explaining the British Parliamentary system to me.  Even though leaders represent parties here, it is not the people who vote for their parties' leaders, it is the members (MP's = Member of Parliament) of the party that determine their leader.  So when election time comes, people vote for the specific party and their issues.  In my mind, this seems a bit more focused on issues at hand, versus an 'image' of a specific person.  In Britain, it's normally the Conservative or Labour party that have the majority in parliament (think Republicans and Democrats), but the difference is, with multiple parties, MPs don't necessarily stick to a clear 'Conservative' or 'Labour' point of view like in the US with the Democrats and Republicans.  While America has other parties, its essentially become a two-party system.  Whilst in Britain voting for a party represents your own local constituency and you have more say in Parliament based on your party, not an individual.  This makes more sense when remembering that Britain is made up of Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.  They have local parliaments that also have representation in London. 

It's very complicated and I won't go too much into it.  But VERY interesting, especially coming from America and seeing how America is very much about image.  For example, Gordon Brown was never pictured with his children and David Cameron's wife just revealed she was pregnant (she is about 5 months).  American politics are dominated by how the individual man can relate to the leader and that also means seeing their families and for better or for worse, focusing on their family image over politics at times.  It's like American Presidents are America's royalty in some way...

I'm talking about all of this because on Tuesday, I had the opportunity to (sort of) witness History.  David Cameron was decided by the coalition government between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats to be the Prime Minister.  It is a tradition since Britain is a Constitutional Monarchy, that once Prime Minister is decided he/she must go to the Queen (or King) and 'ask' for her approval.  (Now, really it's the Queen who starts the conversation not the Prime Minister.  This can be witnessed in the movie The Queen).

I received a call from Ben saying that he and our friend Izzy were going to Buckingham Palace to essentially 'see' David Cameron go into the Palace and then go to move into 10 Downing Street.  Now, inauguration day in America is huge.  Here, because things happen so quickly (or in this case, Britain didn't have a government for five days), it's not as big of a deal.  I ended up getting the tube to Green Park soon to find out they were at Downing Street.

I felt like I was in some stereotypical British movie where the American is running through parks, next to Buckingham Palace, to meet someone urgently.

Alas, I have shin splints and my feet hurt terribly days later.

I made it to Downing Street, and while nothing really happened it was very amusing to see:

1. The small crowd
2. The scuffle between a Labour supporter and very very passionate Tories (Tories are another word for Conservatives, but click the link to get a better definition).
3. Regardless of political leanings, a feeling of witnessing something a part of history... sort of.
4. The traditional jingling of kings to symbolise the Prime Minister's movement into 10 Downing Street

All in all, we didn't see much.  We ended up going to a Pub near by and seeing David Cameron's car drive by. 

I have to say, if I were to vote here (as I believe in the true civic duty to vote), I would not be supporting the Tories  at all.  But, I am glad I got to witness a bit of British history... however contested.