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   valhalla (valhalla@social.gl-como.it)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 04:57:32 JST valhalla

   in reply to

   • Robin Adams
   • Paul

   @robinadams @pwaring and to be fair the shadow cabinet thing only works because of first past the post and the fact that the new PM can form the government without having to worry about the nuances of the results of an election where more parts of society get to be represented.

   But not having to queue for hours, and the results be officially known, or at least 99% known¹ in a day or so look like the bare minimum for a working democracy

   ¹ here in Italy sometimes there are areas where recounts are needed, but they only influence maybe one or two MPs, not the main results of the election

   • Embed this notice
     Robin Adams (robinadams@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 04:57:33 JST Robin Adams

     in reply to

     • Paul

     @pwaring In America, originally the long "lame duck" period was to give the new President time to move to Washington DC. Leaving home, packing up all your things and travelling across the country was a major expedition in the 18th and 19th centuries (as Oregon Trail players know).

     It's stayed mainly because of how difficult it is to amend the Constitution. It was shortened from 4 months to 2 with the 20th Amendment in 1933 (before then the President took office on March 4), before the Interstate highways were a thing, let alone air travel.

     America also doesn't do the Shadow Cabinet thing. The new President needs time to put his cabinet together, and they all need time to quit their current jobs. Having a PM and Ministers who are all simultaneously MPs speeds things up a lot, because they're all already there in Westminster.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul (pwaring@fosstodon.org)'s status on Wednesday, 06-Nov-2024 04:57:34 JST Paul

     Two things I find odd about elections are how quickly the UK counts compared with other countries, and how short our queues are at polling stations. Even in a general election, where 4 countries are voting, we usually know who forms the next government by the end of the next day, and no one ends up queuing for 5 hours to vote (and we supposedly love queuing). If the PM's party loses, they go to the Palace to resign more or less immediately.