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For those interested, here's my take on the British political system (please don't take this as gospel, since I;m sure there are some details I'm not 100% on) So for what it's worth:
The government is currently split into two chambers, The House of Commons and The House of Lords.
New laws are debated in the House of Commons, and the Members of Parliament who make up this house are voted in on a regional 1st past the post system.
The second house, the House Of Lords, has power of veto over laws created in the Commons. There is currently a huge reform in place where the Lords is being changed from a largely Hereditary system to a more democratic one. That topic itself is worthy of its own thread. As it stands at the moment this house is still populated my members of the aristocracy.
Their are three main parties in Parliament (House of Commons) The Conservatives (analagous to the Republicans), The Labour Party (previously very socialist i.e. trade unions, CND, minimum wage etc), but recently occupying very much the middle ground today) finally, there's the Liberal Party - historically very powerfull around the turn of the century, but falling into 3rd place from around the time of the 2nd World War.
The stranger parts of the way the parliament system works relate to how the power is passed to it by the head of state i.e. The Queen. Many of the workings are enshrined in ceremony that has been passed down for over 3 or 400 years. Much of this relates to compromises that The King of England made when his armies (The Cavaliers) were defeated in the Civil War by the Roundheads led by Oliver Cromwell. Rather than suffer a similar fate to the French monarchy, he allowed Cromwell and the parliamentarians to make executive decisions, but with his 'blessing'.
That's the long and short of it, please feel free to correct me wherever I've left any mistakes, or to fill in any gaps where I've glossed over the details.
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