>>>>>>>>>>It's happened.
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>has the sky fallen ?
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>And you can thank the intransigence (sp?) of Harry Reid and Obama for it..
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>The US govt system seems a bit weird from over here. How can you elect a government that can't govern. If the republicans don't like what Obama is doing shouldn't they be ensuring their man (or woman) gets elected next time. As I understand it this tactic usually backfires onto the non president side.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I much prefer the British system. There is an election and the ruling party gets to enact their policies. If the public doesn't like it they can toss them out the next time. Here it's just constant politics.
>>>>>
>>>>>Its not quite as rosy as that. In fact I would say thats its a problem that when a government gets a large majority in Parliament they can push through their agenda even though the majority of the country may not be in favour. Thatcher was a clear example of this. She steered this country to the right without the majority of the population supporting that course.
>>>>
>>>>Hmm. Not a fan of Thatcher but she did get elected three times (and the Conservatives won the election after that as well). How does that gel with your statement : " If the public doesn't like it they can toss them out the next time."
>>>>
>>>>> Your goverment may be dealocked but isn't that what checks and balances are suppose to do. (Maybe)
>>>
>>>
>>>Mike said that :-)
>>
>>True. Sorry. But given that she was re-elected twice (with a bigger majority) then how come you can claim that "She steered this country to the right without the majority of the population supporting that course."
>>
>>>and I just noticed my terrible spelling
>>
>>I didn't :-}
>
>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UK_popular_vote.svg>
>she had a majority in the house but that was down to our first past the post system
Fair point. But that's the system. I don't think it distorts the relative popularity of the two main parties - it's the smaller parties like Lib Dem who suffer because of tactical voting....
