Have you seen any politicians on TV or in the newspaper lately, with facial expressions like little children in a playground? It sometimes looks a little silly when grown-ups try so desperately to show that they are the strongest and the most clever, but in actual fact their squabbles concern something a very important: the next general election, which is coming up soon. This is the day when all adults in the UK get a chance to decide who will run the country, and this special day is less than half a year away.
If you want to know exactly how many seconds are left right now until election day on May 7 next year, check the clock ticking here: Election Countdown
In a democracy like the United Kingdom, a general election is the most important chance we have to influence the way we live; how schools are run, how health care is organized, what should or should not be legal, what roads and rails are built, and much more. In a general election, everyone from the age of 18 can vote to decide which politician from their local area, or constituency, should be sent for to work in the grand building Houses of Parliament in the center of London.
Most politicians belong to one of the big “teams”, or parties. The party with the most politicians voted into Parliament will form the government, and their leader will be the next Prime Minister. Today, the Prime Minister is David Cameron from the Conservative party, but next summer it may be someone else. That is the difference between a democracy and a dictatorship: The people in a country with a dictator cannot get rid of him or her by going to the ballot box and cast their vote (the container where the votes are put into). If the British people is not happy with Cameron, he will accept that he lost, and he will move out of the special house for Prime Ministers in 10 Downing Street.
When everyone has voted and the Prime Minister is chosen, he or she will select a few sharp colleagues and together these people will form the Cabinet, a leadership team for the country, which make the most important suggestions and decisions. For five years they will be the most important people in Westminster, the area around Houses of Parliament and Downing Street.
David Cameron holds a meeting with his cabinet
About 170 journalists work in the Press Gallery in the Parliament every day, and many more if you add those in newspaper offices and on TV- and radio stations around the country. They give us information about what is happening in Westminster, and they often add their own analyses and opinions.
By Cecilia (an adult editor)