I think there's something fundamentally wrong with British culture. How do they keep electing such garbage politicians? It's like every decision they make looks awful to everyone but Brits only realize it after the fact.
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Americans get too excited when they read headlines like this. Nobody voted for Rishi, they voted for the Tories what felt like a decade ago. The Tories have had a revolving door policy, and new rubes keep taking the PM position after the last one leaves/is forced out. Some portion of that 70% are Tory voters who just want another spin on the PM wheel.
How long has it been since the last election?
Last election was in 2019, and they’re usually every 5 years. The next one has to be set for no later than January 2025, but could be earlier than that.
Ummm.... Why the variable timeline? I don't really understand US politics, and I'm an American. I've no hope of really understanding the UK system... Still, how do you not just vote in a new government/PM/MPs on a set schedule? That's the most not British thing I've ever heard of. I thought you guys love routines.
We have the same system in Australia. Constitution sets a maximum govt term but a parliamentary majority can call an election at any time before then.
Is that because he is a twat?
No, it's because he's a Conservative MP
Conservative MP is only a subset of twat species, and I would say a more severe variety.
Surely the next Tory PM the British voters elect won't try to implement all of the terrible and unpopular policies that the tories openly espouse!
Two nitpicks
1st: the UK never voted for Rishi Sunak. Truss (also unelected) left and the Conservative party internally chose their new leader, who they appointed as PM since they're the party in government.
2nd: most people in the UK vote against the Tories and always have. All they need to do is get a couple of percent above the next most popular party and it gives them 100% say. The worst part is that if another anti-Tory party comes around, all it serves to do is split the anti-Tory vote more, and hand them more power.
It's our voting system that is broken. People in general do not like the Conservative party.
did you know that any time a child is born in britain that child has a 10% chance of becoming a tory PM when the sitting one resigns in shame?
What do you mean "any longer" ?! We never wanted him. 4th choise of one party.
Hardly feels like it matters....is the next person going to be just as bad, it's exhausting...
I'm not from the UK but from what I have seen the UK seems to really be heading in the same direction as the US where there are two absolutely awful parties to vote for and one is like 10% better.
Only if you buy into the Murdoch press. Similar thoughts tend to be expressed about Australia’s Labor party also, when the actual reality is markedly different.
I mean okay but just like the US, you get what you voted for.
Honestly that’s the thing about when the UK talks shit about US politics - yeah, we have our problems but yall VOTED to destroy your economy and close your borders to your own detriment and you currently have a revolving door PM where one of them got outlasted by a head of iceberg.
In all fairness Britain are the only self-proclaimed Democracy ("Oldest in the World", they tell us) with an even more undemocratic political system than the US, because in addition to a First Past The Post voting system, they also have a monarch with - as was exposed a couple of years ago - real power as head of state, an unelected Second Chamber with inherited and nominated-for-live positions and, probably worse, no written Constituition so any party in Parliament with a simple 50% + 1 majority can pretty much do whatever they want.
The FTPT + No Constitution combination is probably the worst part, as it means that a party with a mere 41% of votes of cast (so about the votes of only 1/4 of voters, due to abstention) - such as the current ones - can get a parliamentary majority (so, more than 50% of seats) and do things that in other countries would require constitutional changes (which generally require 66% or 75% of votes, depending on country), so things like changing the local definition of Human Rights.
Mind you, the Brexit vote isn't at all affected by these things, so your point still stands unaffected by those considerations.
Then call for an election and kick the Conservative sods out of the chambers.

Looking as who is voting, you're not going to remove any Tories.
That number seems low considering how incompetent the Tories are.
For what it's worth, in 2019 a majority of people voted for parties other than the Tories. They received 43% of the vote, and their leader at the time was Boris Johnson.
The last two Prime Ministers weren't elected by voters, though I suppose you could argue that the majority of voters didn't elect Boris either.
The comments I'm seeing saying something like "well you voted for this" are incredibly misguided. We have a fucking terribly archaic voting system that doesn't serve us at all, there are several large pushes throughout the UK trying to change that.
First past the post has to go. I believe it's the most important issue in our country right now, because it's stopping us from dealing with the actually important issues. To wit: we're debating sending 100 refugees or less a year to Rwanda as a matter of the utmost urgency while the world is catching fire, in any metaphorical sense you care to mention. Geographical concentration of voters should no longer confer political power where the open internet exists.
There are two problems with the urgent need to change this broken broken system though: 1. I don't know what better to replace it with, and 2. I don't have enough faith in the British public anymore to actually agree on the more important issues once it's gone.
Side note: the argument doing the rounds about "but the far right will get in" is irrelevant because our last two home secretaries have been irreconcilable, despicable far-right headbangers. They're already in.
just skip to the next already.
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