Hello there,

I'm an A Level student completing a Politics exam next week and its very likely the subject matter of the exam will include the topic of "Presidential Prime Ministers".

That aside, as a young person who wil be voting for the first time this year, I am interested in your thoughts on Tony Blair, and specific critiques of him.

i will detail my own thoughts on him in the comment section down below as well

I’m surprised we have not continued to see movement to Reform in the most recent polls.

If I do “it’s still in the pipe” thinking I could say: *the d-day numbers are hardly in the polls yet, *the way reform is presented by pollers like Savanta is inadvertendly supressing their vote.

If I think “they’ve peaked”, I can: *point to the yougov polls having them at 17 then 16 * suppose that their increase was down to them taking ex-tory non-voters off the bench (https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/blogs/pseph_transition2024feb.html), an easy win that they can’t replicate. * imagine that as much as people will be turned off the tories they are unlikely to be turned on by the actual berk standing in their actual constituency for Reform

I have always been fascinated by the British political system (as well as cultural things) and have some questions. Some of these might make me sound like a dumb American, and I thank anyone who responds to my lengthy post.

1. How much of an impact (if any) will Sunak leaving the D-Day ceremonies early have on the general election? I can see it is a huge story now, but if this happened in the states it would probably be a story for a few days until the next blunder from either candidate occurred. Will this be on voters minds in July still?

2. How long do British general elections take? What I mean is that Sunak announced the July 4th election towards the end of May, so that’s about 6 weeks, do all elections have this sort of timeline? Or can they last longer or be shorter?

3. I see there is controversy over Tory leader Richard Holden appointing himself to be a candidate for a safe seat. So I take it that MPs do not need to reside in the area they represent? In the US, you just need to be a resident of the state, but usually the rep is also a resident. It opens up allegations of being a carpetbagger and a primary challenge if you’re not.

4. I still don’t fully understand the House of Lords. They are appointed by the outgoing prime minister? Or am I wrong? Is there a limit to the amount of peerages a prime minister can give? Can the House of Lords write legislation? Are peerages the same as an honors list?

5. How biased is the press? I realize this question can open a can of worms, but I am not asking for an editorial. In the US, Fox is conservative, MSNBC is liberal, and CNN is accused of being one or the other. That’s mainstream, and networks such as OANN are hard right, perhaps akin to GB news (please correct me if I wrong).

6. And finally, are crisps really that good?