Gordon Brown, the PM who inherited his (unelected) position from Tony Blair, has just resigned. It ends 13 years of Labour rule, which has seen Britain's prosperity sink to a level not seen for well over 100 years, probably longer.

The new government will be a coalition led by the Conservatives under their leader David Cameron. They have of course been heavily propped up by none other than Michael Ashcroft, who will now no doubt be collecting in more favours. I wonder what the impact on Belize will be?

Now now Peter it is Lord Michael Ashcroft, maybe the will give him Belize.

Me thinks they have already.

Methinks the Westminster system is flawed.
Many have indicated that Belize should consider a change from this system - can you imagine if we had the same sort of election issue here. The mind boggles, really.

Westminster system has been around for quite awhile.

I say: time to get out of the UK!

The new plans anounced by the conservatives even before they were officially in charge were bad enough.

I really hope that the effect on Belize will be positive though. You never know.

Yes Jesse, the Westminster system has been around a long time - and might want to be updated to reflect a new era. Kind of like the very strange electoral college in the US. Systems tend to reflect the circumstances in which they are formed (in the case of both governments, women who couldn't vote, voting men who couldn't read, and surfs/slaves who didn't matter). They were essentially oligarchies posing as democracies. When the circumstances change substantially maybe the system should be dusted off and realigned a tad?
Only my idea - doubtful anybody in the UK cares what I think.
For the record, there has been discussion on this point for some time in Belize. SPEAR was quite vocal about it for a while. I understand that some of the proposals on the table in Belize now are meant to give the opposition a chance to do something other than bellyache during the time they are not the "ruling" party. I find the total impotency of the "other" party to be unfortunate - it leads to a winner eats looser mentality and a whiplash change of direction with every election. I rather like the idealistic concept of a government that is encouraged to find something like a consensus solution to major issues.

... women who couldn't vote, voting men who couldn't read, and surfs/slaves who didn't matter).

Now thats where I want to live!!!!

It might be quite impossible to find places around the world that would match all of your requirements for a perfect political system but Belarus, Chad, China, Equitorial Guinea, Eritrea, Laos, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Zimbabwe come pretty darn close.