Who's in charge of Britain?

who's in charge of Britain whilst the Prime Minister isn't it the one we voted for actually no he isn't not only is the Prime Minister not in charge of Britain but we didn't even vote for him the Prime Minister is officially just an adviser to the real head honcho me yes an old lady lucky enough to be descended from a family with the most violent army is our head of state it's officially her country and her laws except you know that's not really how it works our Parliament is a baffling thousands of years old institution that's been around for hundreds of years and it's changed so much that the word officially means diddly squat so how is the country actually run what does the Prime Minister do who does the government why am the their backbenchers government how Home Secretary there is parliamentary where cabinet reshuffle opposition right honourable what Britain is a democracy which means we the people decide how the country is run but instead of squeezing 64 million people into the House of Commons we have 650 people representing all of us how are they choose the country has been carefully divert birth ah has been carefully divided into 650 constituencies each one containing roughly 70,000 voters every 5 years there's a general election we put an X next to the person we like best then the person with the most votes becomes our constituencies Member of Parliament or MP now even though technically anyone can put themselves up for election and play often do they're almost always a member of a political party but what is a political party broadly speaking it's a group of people that all feel the same way about how the country should be run they have a party headquarters and a logo and a favourite colour if you're a member of one of these parties you're much more likely to get voted for because people know what you stand for and political parties have got money to help with posters and leaflets and things there's nothing in the rulebook that says there needs to be such thing as political parties they've just naturally come about in theory you could have a parliament made up entirely of independent party less MP's it's just never happened and they probably wouldn't agree on anything so that's how the House of Commons gets it 650 MPs and now this is where she comes in where the Queen politely asked one of the MPs to be her prime minister this is a tradition that dates back to the years of King George the first who needed an adviser to help run the country because he only spoke German officially the Queen can pick whomever she likes but so far she's always gone for the leader of the party with the most MPs the Prime Minister then chooses a crack team of his best friends to form the government a small group of people who do the actual day-to-day running of Britain as in coming up with new laws and deciding where to spend our money and deciding how to get our money etc etc the Prime Minister's job is to decide who does what swap them around every so often and gives them a massive giving a thing but the government can't do whatever it likes it has to be kept in check and challenged on every decision it makes that's mainly the job of the party that came second in the general election they're called the opposition they pretend they've got government jobs and show you what they would have done if they'd won instead again there's nothing in the rule book about any opposition in fact the opposition wasn't mentioned in nor atoll until 1937 when they have to agree how much the leader of the Opposition should be paid so what about the rest of the MPs who don't get a job either in the government or the shadow cabinet they've still got a very important job to do they're called backbenchers because they sit on the back benches which are at the back and are benches it's their job to represent us the ordinary folk in Parliament and they do this by voting on things every time someone comes up with a potential new law known as a bill our MPs argue about it for ages and ages and then decide I or no in a vote the eyes to the right 400 they use the word I instead of yes because they're pillocks in theory the MPs decide for themselves how to vote but the slightly depressing users they're normally told how to vote by the leader of their party party leaders employ people literally called whips whose job it is to go around making threats and promises so the MPs voters they're told it's the only way you can get more than half of the room to vote the same way it may seem like an insult to democracy but the pilot who actually that's pretty hard to justify once a bill gets liked by the House of Commons it gets handed on a piece of paper to the room next door the House of Lords but they're really weird and complicated and I can't be bothered to talk about them right now so they're a story for another time doors get sent back and forth like an onion between the two houses until ultimately one person gets the final say on what becomes a law oh go on then isn't that insane that we actually live in a monarchy it's two thousand and something not 13 something gradually over time the Queen's role has become more and more ceremonial and she does more and more nothing her power still exists and in theory the Queen could veto any law she doesn't like but she knows full well that if she tries to exercise any of her theoretical power and defy the MPs that we the people voted for there'll be an instant revolution and we'll set her Palace on fire it's easy to forget all of this when there's an election on the media make it feel like you're choosing a prime minister but you're not and you're not choosing a party either you're choosing a person your local MP who just happens to be a member of a party who just happens to have a party leader so who's in charge of Britain in an official sense her in a technical sense him in a practical sense them in an idealistic sense us but the real answer don't know

Channel: Jay Foreman

Views: 2,685,872

Rating: 4.923399 out of 5

Keywords: Politics Unboringed, Prime Minister, What does the Prime Minister do?, House of Commons, What is a political party, Bez, The Queen, Shadow cabinet, Opposition, Backbenchers, House of Lords, monarchy, Jay Foreman, Liam Butler, Unfinished London, angryflatcap, documentary

Id: rMXJOKhf_AA

Length: 5min 42sec (342 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2015

Reddit Comments

[u/snappy121]

This guy has been cracking out multiple videos a day like this! Really enjoying his content

[u/Shastars]

"They use aye instead of yes because they're pillocks" I cracked up

[u/reddit_crunch]

whips, mumble mumble. yep, that about sums it up. their prominence makes a mockery of the entire system.

just a bit more on the HoL would have been good. they are another anachronism begging to be fixed.

[u/jachiche]

"Our parliament is a baffling thousands of years old institution thats been around for hundreds of years"

Thanks for clearing that one up!

EDIT: Having said that, I've just watched all of his political videos, and they're pretty good

[u/defproc]

He has to be related to Beardyman.

[u/grogipher]

I would disagree that the whole thing would collapse if there were no parties - there are plenty of councils who lasted for long times (and the island councils continue to this day) without party political lines being drawn?