Well, it is all very exciting, but frankly a bit of a disaster.
After our usual, orderly elections, the new PM (or the re-blessed old one) cheerfully swings round Buck House in a posh chauffeur driven car, kisses hands with the Queen and Bob’s your uncle. Meanwhile the old PM calls in the movers and slinks out the back door of No. 10 Downing Street.
By lunch time it’s all over. It is a pretty brutal business – one lot moves out and the other lot moves in before anybody has even gone to bed. None of this genteel US elect a President in November and install him in late January stuff. The Brits can be hard nosed and brisk when they want to be. Maybe it’s a legacy of all those upper class nannies: Spit spot, chop chop, and no dawdling!
The process of replacing one Prime Minister with another, or renewing the old one, is called Kissing of Hands and really does require contact with the Royal digits. That’s exactly what we expect along with our boiled eggs and marmite soldiers the morning after election day.
Instead, this morning, Her Majesty, having read the exit polls announced that she would see no one (and therefore not accept any kisses) at least until lunch time. Given Gordon Brown’s unfortunate election encounter with another British grandmother, the PM wasn’t in a position to complain. HM was likely to be a grandmother too far.
In the event, Her Majesty saw no one, and her hands have remained officially untouched. For the first time since 1974 we have an inconclusive election result. The stock market and sterling are falling fast (good time to book that visit to the UK, as long as you are willing to dodge the twin perils of airline strikes and volcanic ash).
Neither of the two main parties got enough seats to form a government, so the folks famous for coming last, wearing socks with their sandals, and growing beards get to decide which of the two front runners they’ll prop up. I expect it almost looks like power to someone who has lived on warm beer for four or five decades.
While the sock guys are making up their minds whom to back, political junkies (like me) are walking around like zombies, sleepless after a night of election results and a day of political horse trading, drunk on the heady mixture of caffeine and political spin. Who needs booze? The lucky ones (mostly Conservatives) have mixed champagne with their spin, but everyone is exhausted – and this could go on for days.
Thank you to all who asked if I had managed to sort out my voting problems, now that I am of no fixed address. I learned that you don’t have to live somewhere to vote, you just have to prove that you have a connection to a place.
If all else fails you can declare yourself homeless and still register. That casual and humane flexibility is also very British.
So, although I was deleted when my house was rented, I re-registered at my old home.
The village was looking its best, as it always does in spring, with each walled garden draped in aubrieta, and blue bells, grape hyacinths, cherry trees and magnolias just at their peak. I talked to a few of my old neighbours and drove past my house. The pub has changed hands, and finally (after about 25 years) also changed a few items on the menu. It is still overpriced, and still felt just like home.
I voted for the socks and sandal guys. I’m daft that way.
Ho hum. Interesting times.
I’m not sure whether you mean Green or LibDem, by socks and sandals, Duch, but I must say I’m all of a twitter (in the old sense!) at finally seeing a Green MP in the HoC. I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. And I have to say, as one who live through all the kerfuffle around 1974, I’m not too surprised at the way Clegg choked in the end.
As a fellow politics junkie, I envy you these exciting times. Enjoy!!!
Comment by Tessa — May 7, 2010 @ 7:00 pm
I have to admit, when I saw the title of this post I had a completely different picture in mind. 🙂 A mental picture I’m having an unfortunate time shaking. 🙂
Comment by Midlife Slices — May 8, 2010 @ 7:39 am
I’d have done if I could. But there are people living in this country who pay their taxes, live an orderly and domesticated life, are kind to idiots and dogs, and children occasionally, don’t bother anyone overmuch and do crosswords for relaxation and still can’t vote. They are the ones who are here perfectly legally, have been here for decades but prefer to keep their own nationality.
Comment by friko — May 9, 2010 @ 9:45 am
Do you get to vote in the US elections too? Such a powerful woman, you are.
Comment by Jane Gassner — May 10, 2010 @ 10:19 am
I almost lost my mind during the contested U.S. presidential election in 2000 (and try not to think about it much, since it still pisses me off). At least you don’t have to worry about Florida, Duch.
Comment by Ruth Pennebaker — May 10, 2010 @ 2:08 pm
Tessa – The Greens wear their sandals without the socks, on the whole. Otherwise they have much in common – especially the beer.
MLS – You and a few million other people. But we are all carefully reminding ourselves of the difference between a “hung parliament” and a “hanged parliament”.
Friko – I know that well. I have lived here for 31 years, but this was the first general election where I had a vote. Even after the Americans decided that dual nationality was okay I hesitated for many years because I had an emotional dislike of becoming a subject.
But I am very glad I took British nationality. I didn’t expect it to change the way I felt, but it did. The UK has long felt like home, but now it has that Robert Frost quality of being the place where when you have to go there, they have to take you in.
Ruth – Oh, it isn’t like Florida at all. There is no sense that the result is wrong, just a sense of not knowing quite what to do about it.
But as of this evening we have a new PM, though there is still a lot of political horsetrading to come. I really do not know what I am going to do for entertainment when it all quietens down and all we have left is the pound down and taxes up.
Comment by Duchess — May 11, 2010 @ 12:37 pm
Thanks for an illuminating and on the ground picture of your election follies. I downloaded The Independent into my Kindle and read the ten special articles on the situation, but what you say brings things to life.
More and more I get the best sense of what’s happening in this world through my blogger friends.
Comment by Hattie — May 11, 2010 @ 2:10 pm
We were following the elections there in UK here from Norway. It was really an interesting turn of events especially that the Labour party has been around for a long time.
Comment by Charles Bjørnsen Ravndal — May 16, 2010 @ 2:45 pm
I have to say I get the biggest kick out of watching your Parliment on C-Span when your Prime Minister has to stand there while everyone yells at him. We had one guy yell out at Obama this year during an address to congress and the guy was publicly reviled. Your way is so much more fun.
Comment by injaynesworld — June 2, 2010 @ 8:49 am