And the loser is... the British electoral system

Whilst a humbled Clegg twiddles his thumbs and considers his options on a coalition with the Tories or whoever else will jump into bed with him, I am more concerned with what seems to be a strengthened public and media attitude towards a British Presidency.


While it is true that Cameron's Conservatives have amassed the greatest amount of votes, they are still short of that crucial majority. Many seem to be repulsed by the fact that Gordon Brown could yet become PM in a rainbow coalition of everyone vs the Tories. 


"I voted for David Cameron, not Gordon Brown!"
"I voted for Nick Clegg. I don't want to see Brown take his place."
"Gordon Brown can't be PM again, but who else can be from Labour? I didn't vote for David Miliband to be PM"


These statements are all untrue unless you voted for those as your MP in your local constituency. You may have voted Conservative, but you did not vote for Cameron. You may have voted Liberal Democrat, but you didn't vote for Nick Clegg. And so forth.


The parties appoint their leaders, and these leaders assume the premiership if their party gains a clear majority. The system as it stands now in the UK does not allow the public to directly vote for a Prime Minister. We all vote for our representative in the House of Commons.


The media seems generally happy to feed the public's misperception, particularly in regard to those awful TV debates. It is good MPs/candidates that have pandered to their local constituents that win elections for the parties and their leaders. 


Nevertheless, there do seem to be people around who understand the media has it all wrong and that the system is becoming too Americanised in light of the media. Our system is different to the USA's, we do not need the same kind of media coverage. If you wanted complete parity with the USA you'd have a TV debate with... the Queen. Arguing with herself.


I think we can all agree that we don't want the media to dumb-down the election process for us. Directly, the PM is appointed, not elected. But the people decide the ruling party. It's just convenient that the leader of the ruling party usually is the PM.