Kingdom of Great Britain is a united country led by a parliamentary democracy under monarch system which is also led by Queen Elizabeth II. Its government management is led by Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
Political system of United Kingdom is a multi-party. Since 1920, there were two dominant parties in UK: The Conservative and The Labor Party. Before the Labor Party rose in British politics, the Liberal Party was another major political party, along with the Conservatives. The coalition and minor government were sometimes formed in a British system, but its first-past-the-post election system tent to defend the domination from both parties (although both of them used to depend on third party: Liberal Democrat for example, to obtain major status in the Parliament). The government coalition of Conservatives–the Liberal Democrat has taken its position from 2010 to 2015 (first coalition since 1945). This coalition ended after the parliament election on May 7th, 2015, when the Conservatives won 330 seats in the House of Commons, while their coalition partner lost 8 seats in the House. The unique thing of government tradition in the Great Britain is that there is shadow cabinet, formed by the opposition. Its cabinet consists of shadow Prime Minister and Ministers themselves, as much as in the official cabinet led by the election-winning party.
Before getting elected as Prime Minister on July 24th, 2019, Boris Johnson was a politician of Great Britain Conservatives Party and a journalist. Previously, Johnson once served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the United Kingdom, Mayor of London, member of United Kingdom Parliament and Editor in Chief of The Spectator Magazine and served for several positions in shadow cabinet as well.
Johnson spent his education at Eton College and Ballilol College, Oxford, majoring in Literae Humanities. He began his career as a journalist at The Times and moved to The Daily Telegraph, where he has been an Assistant Editor. He was promoted as the Editor of The Spectator in 1999. In the 2001 election, he was elected as member of House of Commons and became one of the most influential politicians in the United Kingdom.
Under the leadership of Michael Howard, Johnson was given a position by the Conservatives and appointed to be Minister of Art in the Shadow Cabinet (April – November 2004). When David Cameron was elected to be Head of the Conservatives in 2005, Johnson was re-elected as Minister of Higher Education in the Shadow Cabinet and resigned as Chief Editor from The Spectator.
In September 2007, Johnson was chosen as the Conservatives candidate of 2008 Election for Mayor of London. He defeated the other candidate from Labor Party, Ken Livingstone and was then elected as Mayor of London as well. He resigned from the Parliament. With the acquisition of more than one million votes, he became the mayor with the largest vote acquisition of any politician in the history of the United Kingdom. In May 4th, 2012, Johnson was re-elected as Mayor of London, once again defeating Livingstone in the Election.
In the 2019 Election, Boris Johnson who has been Head of the Conservatives won the election. The party won 368 seats at the Parliament, increased by 50 seats from previous election. Meanwhile, the other parties: Labor Party, or the opposition, obtained 191 seats and Liberal Democrat obtained 13 seats, Brexit and Scottish National Party had 55 seats.
Johnson is a figure who is pro by the decision of Britain leaving the Europe. The plan has said that Britain would officially leave Europe by the end of January 2020. Previously, the main opposition party, Labor Party has made a promise to renegotiate the Brexit agreement with European Union, while the Liberal Democrat decided to cancel the agreement altogether and bring Britain back to Europe.
Johnson has previously asked the elections to be held faster due to political chaos and deadlock in the Parliament regarding to Brexit. He then promised the public that the vote for his Conservatives Party would be able to find and resolve Brexit.
Profile of Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson was born in the United States, June 19th, 1964 and into a well-known English family with various backgrounds. His great-grandfather (from father) was the Turkish Moslem journalist, Ali Kemal Bay, while his great-grandfather (from his mother) had descendants of Lithuanian Jewish and Israeli Orthodox Jewish. The Johnson family is still related to the British Royal family that are descended from King George II who reigned in the 18th century.
The name of “Boris” was given by his father’s Russian immigrant acquaintance. Johnson was sent to Eton, a most prestigious private school in the United Kingdom. Several members of Royal family and British aristocrats sent their sons/ daughters to the school. Eton itself has already led to 19 British Prime Ministers. He spent his education the famous universities, Oxford, where he had a close friendship with Prime Minister, David Cameron. Johnson has never been part away from politics. His political views were inherited by his father, a member of European Union parliament, as British representatives.
Since Oxford, his brilliance has always been spotted as a young British multi-talented politician, together with Cameron, former of Head of the Conservatives; William Hague, as well as Jeremy Hunt, a politician he just defeated. Johnson is known as a popular figure, yet “messy” and “disorganized”. In 1986, he was chosen as President of Oxford Student Unity.
Johson has finally jumped into politics in the 1997 election, when he put up himself for parliament member for Clwyd South district. He lost to Labor Party candidates but his name began to count. While preparing to the next election, Johnson resigned to the weekly magazine The Spectator in 1999 as the Chief Editor. Even though when he accepted this position, he said he would ignore his political ambitions.
Two years later, Johnson was elected as a member of parliament from the Henley district. He had a low attendance record in the Parliament. Even so, he was believed to hold a number of positions there as Party Deputy Chairperson, Shadow Minister of Culture and Shadow Minister of Higher Education Shadow.
In 2008, he was surprisingly elected as Mayor of London, a strong basis city of Labor Party, defeating his opponent for 2 periods, Ken Livingstone. Johnson’s popularity as Mayor of London led him to the national politics. He also led London to be the host of 2012 Summer Olympics.
One of Johnson’s most popular policy was his initiation about bicycling as public transportation in London. Other than that, while he had been in the position for 8 years, the number of criminality declined sharply. He had his own typical style of leading the city: low profile, unlikely-serious, confusing, as well as unlikely-directionless. However, his being charismatic and humorous was oddly his most charming characteristic, making him to be compared to the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
Johnson’s ambition to become prime minister began to appear when he returned to the British Parliament in 2015, representing Uxbridge and South Ruislip District. He then became the main man-on-the-backstage in the “Leave” Campaign on Brexit referendum or in his British membership in European Union in 2016. He held a campaign throughout the country by riding the big red bus, explaining and announcing British’s loss if the people choose to stay in the European Union.
His campaign led to a peak moment showing that British citizens finally chose to leave European Union in the referendum, Cameron resigning from his position and Johnson himself became his strong candidate for successor. Johnson also had an opportunity to be appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs by Theresa May. However, the position has only been his for 2 years. He resigned in July 2019 because of differences of opinions with May regarding Brexit agreement. After waiting for 3 years, his effort led to a peak moment. Downing Street, the official residence of the British Prime Minister, eventually belonged to Boris Johnson.
The 2019 Election Result
The 2019 Great Britain Election was held in December 12th, 2019. It was held based on the provisions of the Early Parliamentary Election Act 2019, two and a half years after the general election in June 2017. This was the 18th election of Great Britain during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II.
This early election was triggered after a period of parliamentary deadlock: about how the Brexit continued, an issue that dominated the campaign. The Conservatives had made an agreement with Prime Minister Boris Johnson to find solution about Brexit, while the Labor Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, held a campaign on the program of increasing huge public spending and nationalization, as well as the second Brexit agreement. The Democrat Liberal, led by Jo Swinson, promised to postpone the Brexit agreement, as what the Scottish National Party led by Nicola Sturgeon did. Sturgeon focused more on the second Scottish independence referendum.
The 2019 Election became the first election in Great Britain held in December since 1923 and was also set at short notice at the end of October. Every parliamentary constituency in Great Britain chooses one of Parliament Members to be sent to the Council, by using the system of first-past-the-post election. This indirectly elects a whole government as well, formed by parties or party coalitions which can command the trust of the majority of Parliament Member. Majority and minority of the governments would be both possible results of the election.
