Boris's first job - prepare for Armageddon
By John Welford
@indexer (4852)
Leicester, England
July 22, 2019 6:33am CST
When a new UK Prime Minister takes over, many things happen very quickly.
For one thing, he or she is PM from the second that they have "kissed hands" with The Queen.
There is no lead-in period as there is with US Presidents. If a Prime Minister has won a general election, the defeated incumbent will tender their resignation to The Queen the following day, and the new Prime Minister will take over immediately afterwards and have to take responsibility for all the crises that might have been ongoing the day before.
The very first job that the new PM has to do after returning from the Palace to Downing Street is not what most people might expect. It is not to make a speech from the steps of Number 10, or to appoint his cabinet ministers, but to write handwritten letters addressed to the captains of Britain's nuclear-armed submarines!
It is not known precisely what is in these letters, but it is believed that they give authority to launch missiles should this be necessary in the event of a nuclear attack being directed at the United Kingdom. The letters are not to be opened otherwise.
These letters are written and signed as soon as the new PM steps through the door of Number 10. They are then conveyed to the Clyde naval base in Scotland where the submarines are based.
The PM's first briefing will be with the heads of the armed services and the senior civil servants at the Ministry of Defence, to update him on the most pressing issues of national security. One decision he will have to make is to decide who will accompany him and his family to the nuclear bunker should the worst happen!
After all that, he can get on with the business of appointing his ministers and opening the champagne!
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6 responses
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
23 Jul 19
Governments may come and governments may go, but the British system of government stays the same! The first duty of government is always to ensure the security of the nation, so there must be no hiatus during which there is any doubt about where the leadership comes from.
In the UK the Civil Service is permanent. That means that unelected people do not lose their jobs when their bosses change. Their job is to enact the decisions made by the politicians, whatever their personal views, which they always keep to themselves.
1 person likes this
@indexer (4852)
• Leicester, England
22 Jul 19
I think you are right in that the two men share certain characteristics. However, a British Prime Minister is somewhat limited in what he can actually do. He cannot enact legislation, only Parliament can do that, and Johnson only has a tiny majority in the Commons on which he can rely - even that is currently under threat. Under the British system, the second chamber (the House of Lords) is largely an advisory body that has little real power, unlike the US Senate.
Likewise, he cannot veto legislation in the way that a US President can.
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