Discussion between DarkHeart and bobsburner

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10:47

A: Could Boris Johnson face criminal charges for illegally proroguing Parliament?

IANAL, but probably the only thing he could be charged with is misconduct in public office. I haven't seen anyone suggest that he should be charged (for this, this time). The charge does not require one to break some explicit statue. It also applies "where there is no relevant statutory offence,...

DarkHeart

@PeterDavidCarter - Prime Minsters (in the UK and other Commonwealth countries) are not elected they are appointed. Each party elects a leader and the leader of the largest party is invited to form government.

bobsburner

@DarkHeart Realistically, yes. Legally, not really. MPs can vote for any other MP to become PM. It's just that rarely happens.

@DarkHeart Cite a good source and I'll delete my comments. I'd love to find out what the actual rules are for it.

DarkHeart

@bobsburner - The leader of the party that wins the most seats in a general election is appointed Prime Minister by the Queen. parliament.uk/about/mps-and-lords/principal/…

bobsburner

@DarkHeart is there an Act that spells that all out anywhere? Ideally including what happens when no one party gets most seats, or if it's mostly independents?

DarkHeart

@bobsburner - The UK Constitution is un-codified. This is about precedent and convention. If no party gets enough seats (either by themselves or by coalitions) then they will eventually have to go back to the polls.

bobsburner

10:47

@DarkHeart Its law (mostly) is codified though. Is there really no law which states who becomes PM? What happens if anyone disagrees?

DarkHeart

@bobsburner - See parliament.uk/education

@bobsburner - By uncodified I mean there isn't one single constitutional document like the Americans have.

bobsburner

@DarkHeart I am not talking about the "constitution" I mean the act/decree itself which established the rules. Or if it's not an act or decree, where/when does it come from? (p.s.: can someone move this interaction to chat? It's getting long and I don't know how)

DarkHeart

They are established over a long period of time.

Even the first prime minister wasn't called a prime minister

bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/walpole_robert.shtml

bobsburner

I get that, but what established them? Surely there's some piece of paper somewhere that had its contents voted on, and its existence validated by the monarch.

DarkHeart

The advantage of an uncodified (also erroneously known as an "unwritten")

is that is can be very flexiable

bobsburner

10:52

If it's not codified, who picks? From the parliment.uk link you sent me, it looks like it's up to the current monarch. But that's not definitive.

DarkHeart

Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice

Erskine May (full title: Erskine May: Parliamentary Practice, original title: A Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament) is a parliamentary authority originally written by British constitutional theorist and Clerk of the House of Commons, Thomas Erskine May.Erskine May is considered to be the most authoritative and influential work on parliamentary procedure and the constitutional conventions affecting Parliament which form a major part of the uncodified UK constitution. It is not a rigid set of rules but a description of how the procedure evolved and of the conventions...

I am not a lawyer and this topic is very complicated (that's why that have lawyers and judge and even then they don't agree(

bobsburner

11:04

Can you not find anything in that document explaining the process? (I couldn't, but that might be due to lack of familiarity with UK parliament)

DarkHeart

I'm not sure what you are looking for ... the short answer is that after a general election, the Queen will ask the leader of the party with the largest amount of seats can you form a government. If they say yes, then they are the new Prime minster. I can not tell you where the rules are as I am neither a constitutional scholar nor a historian

bobsburner

So at this point, this discussion's just conjecture? No word on what happens if someone else can form a government first?

bobsburner

11:24

I've deleted my comments on the question to clean it up a little.

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