Me and My hubby were discussing American Politics the other day. Beacuse he is studying Law, we were curious as to how your political and legal system works. Whats the difference between the House of Representatives and The Senate? Being under a Monarchy, its difficult to understand how other countrys govern.. But i will say i think i prefer your way of voting to ours. Our counrty is so... Old Fashioned!

But yeah, great stamp. You certainly gave me a litle insight with your link too. Thanks!

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_{Algy Saw the Bear
The Bear Saw Algy
The Bear was Bulgy
The Bulge was Algy
~ (c) Barneys Bunch circa 1985}

Neat stamp!

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-Apophysis- -Digital Tweakers- -Chaoscopers- -Ultra Fractal-

Thanks!

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The House of Representatives is a representation of each state by population. In other words states with more people have more representatives than those less. For instance Massachusetts has 10 and Texas has 32.(Are those states good examples for you to understand?) The smallest state(s) based on population only have 1 representative. In the Senate the number of representatives from each state is 2 regardless of the size of the state. Having both allows for smaller states to have more fair representation. I hope that makes sense to you. If you have any other questions feel free to ask. I don't understand how your country governs either.

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! Yup! That cleared it up nicely... And as for us Brits, Well.. Our Queen instructs her government to run the country. We have Three Major Political Parties - Labour, (Who are like your Democrats) Conservatives (Who are like your Republicans) and the Liberal Democrats (Who is basically a "Third Way" Party) The government is made up of Members Of Parliament (MP's) who represent thier own consituency ( Britain is split into different constituencies based on county borders.. So if you live in London, you will have different constituencies within London for each town. ) the people of each constituency pick what candidate they want in the House of Parliament to represent them. The Candidate with the most votes will sit as an MP. Then, the Majority of whatever parties candidates are elected, run the government. Our Current Leader (Tony Blair) Is leader of the Labour Party, so hence we have a Labour government.

Wales, where i live is somewhat considered a Land of its own, so although we are overall governed from The Houses of Parliament, we do have a seperate "Welsh Assembly" that mostly deals with the social aspects of Wales and the Govenment in London give them the finance for Wales. The Assembly dish out the money to our Police forces, Hospitals, Schools and Prisons here in Wales. Its the same basic concept too for Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Confused Yet?!!!? All in all, i think i prefer the American Way!

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_{Algy Saw the Bear
The Bear Saw Algy
The Bear was Bulgy
The Bulge was Algy
~ (c) Barneys Bunch circa 1985}

Yeah....Wales has especially confused me. Plus the term United Kingdom has always confused me. What does it include? Does it include more than one country? If it does how are they united?

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Yeah.. there are a lot of small islands off the coast of the mainland like Jersey, Guernsey, the Isle Of Wight, and a few others that im at a loss to remember now But it basically stems from the days of the old empire when Britain governed half the world and had colonies everywhere.. Like India, Africa and places like the Falklands and Hong Kong. These were classed as within our "Kingdom" The Queen of Great Britain is the still the head of state for Australia, and some countries still use our High Court and House of Lords to settle thier disputes. Thankfully, after Queen Victoria's reign, Britain gave up all it's colonies and Independence was granted to them.

In the middle ages, Wales and Scotland had borders with England. We are different race of peoples known as celts. we have or own language and customs that is separate from the English. During certain parts of history, The English crossed these borders and Anglisiced both Scotland and Wales. However Tradition has survived and when Tony Blair came into power in 1997, he allowed the Welsh and the Scottish to Vote on wether or not they wanted thier own Parliaments. Scotland voted for it and Wales sort-of voted for it. Hence why we have an Assembly in Wales, not a Welsh parliament. We dont really trust ourselves to govern ourselves!
After all, the UK as a whole (Incuding all the Islands, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland) would fit nice and snugly into Texas. Wales is actually smaller than America's smallest states.

One way of putting it, is that America is "UnitedStates" and Britain has United "Kingdoms Which in modern times basically means that our King (or Queen as it is at present) Is overall state Ruler of England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. These 4 countries make up what is quitessentially, the UK.

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_{Algy Saw the Bear
The Bear Saw Algy
The Bear was Bulgy
The Bulge was Algy
~ (c) Barneys Bunch circa 1985}

Ok that makes sense. I knew that Wales and Scottland has their own customs and traditions. I have a friend that studied Welch. I don't know much about the culture though. I didn't know that the Queen of England was still the head of state of Australia. I thought they had their own government. I know that they consider themselves independant.(Atleast it seemed that way when I was their last year.) I also didn't know that England ruled the Falklands, too. So does Wales consider themselves their own Country?

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Well that depends. North Wales feels more strongly about it than us here in the South. Back in the day, the South was hugely industrialised with coal mines and steelworks, which saw a lot of English migrants come here to work. We in the South speak English and have a more commercial existence than those in the Rural North. However the general feeling is that we do consider ourself a different country. We have our own National Anthem, Flag and (in some cases if you choose to speak it) Language. In Wales we have our own national sports teams (seperate from England). I suppose the biggest problem Wales has is that since the decline of industry here, its suffers from a lot of social deprivation and has areas of high poverty and low-income.. We do tend to rely a lot on English money to keep us all going. A lot of people travel over the border into England to work and state benefits (Social Security) is paid by the British Government in London. I work for the National Health Service which is a UK -Wide organisation thats run buy the state..So even though i live in Wales and work in a Welsh hospital, my wages is paid by the British Government. (well.. the taxpayer actually.. thats how we manage to have free healthcare)

Also, Australia does have thier own Government, but the Queen is still their figurehead. Its like if you were in trouble in Australia and had to go to Court, there would still be the Royal coat of arms in the courtroom, the state would be prosecuting on behalf of the Queen. I think Australia is pretty much on the verge of kicking her out.. I know she was booed on her last state visit there!

Personally, I do think of myself as Welsh first, British second and European third.

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_{Algy Saw the Bear
The Bear Saw Algy
The Bear was Bulgy
The Bulge was Algy
~ (c) Barneys Bunch circa 1985}