and with very little fanfare, the UK has a new prime minister from today. under the parliamentary system, gordon brown takes over from tony blair as the leader of the majority labour party, and therefore de facto becomes the head of the national government.

i’m still getting used to all this parliamentary stuff. there are certain aspects of it i really like. this isn’t one of them. i still have that deep-seated need to elect a person as opposed to a party. i need to know that i get what i signed on for – not that halfway through i’ll be provided a relief pticher in lieu of the person i actually wanted to lead the country. it feels like bait-and-switch. and while i vehemently disagreed with blair’s stance on many things, overall i was still a member of the fan base. this gordon brown character leaves me cold, and i haven’t been around long enough to know much about his views and priorities. so basically, we’re all supposed to take it on faith that he’ll stay true to the party line everyone bought at the polls just two years ago.

still, the lack of pomp and circumstance around the whole thing is rather refreshing. when my dad was here visiting this spring, he was surprised to learn that a former prime minister is not accorded the same exalted status as a former president. while they’re certainly granted privileges and honours, they’re seen much more as former-public-servants-turned-private-citizens. many even continue on in politics as members of parliament – something which would be unthinkable for a former president to do. having reached the pinnacle of political achievement, presidents don’t then go back to being a congressional representative – instead they build their libraries and visit their ranches, and continue to be surrounded by the secret service, and write their biographies, and take on the occasional public speaking event. they don’t go back to worrying about showing up for votes or stumping the campaign trail.

so it’ll be interesting to see what we get under gordon brown, but thus far he’s not been heaped with praise. to me he remains a largely unknown quanitity and his promise of “new priorities” has me a little unnerved. come next general election, will he get my vote?

the apples in stereo – same old drag

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tony blair, gordon brown, prime minister