The U.K. has a general election tomorrow. The British system of government has always confused me – you mean it’s not written down?* you mean the Prime Minister can call an election whenever he wants? – so I decided to do a little research. Someone posted a nice overview of the British system as a comment on Matt P.’s blog.

I also found this on Wikipedia:

The term of a Prime Minister is linked to the term of Members of the House of Commons. Parliament has a maximum term of five years [ever since the Parliament Act of 1911]; in practice, however, it is usually “dissolved” sooner by the Sovereign, acting on a request from the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister normally chooses the moment most advantageous to his or her party for the dissolution. In some circumstances, however, the Prime Minister may be compelled to dissolve Parliament (or, if he or she prefers, to resign) by the House of Commons. The House may attempt to force the dissolution by passing a Motion of No Confidence or by rejecting a Motion of Confidence. The same effect is achieved if the House of Commons rejects the Budget (“withdraws Supply”), or if it rejects some other important component of the Government’s agenda. Such defeats for the Government, however, are rare; there have only been three defeats on confidence issues since the nineteenth century: twice in 1924, and once in 1979. …

Whatever the reason… the dissolution is followed by general elections. If his or her party has lost a majority in the House of Commons, the Prime Minister is compelled to resign (or request a dissolution, but the Sovereign is not compelled to accept such a request). The leader of the party or coalition now in the majority is then appointed Prime Minister by the Sovereign. …

Much more fascinating stuff about the British political and constitutional system here, here and here.

* Turns out some of it is written down.

Weekly TV series I regularly watched before I met Matt:

Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Smallville

Weekly TV series I regularly watch now:

Desperate Housewives
Veronica Mars
American Idol
Smallville
Jack & Bobby
Lost
Alias
The West Wing
Joey
Will & Grace
Saturday Night Live
The Daily Show (x4)

Granted, I used to watch Will & Grace and Saturday Night Live, but hardly regularly. I used to watch The West Wing regularly, but when I met Matt I hadn’t seen it in about two years. Desperate Housewives, Veronica Mars, Lost and Jack & Bobby didn’t exist when I met Matt, but I don’t know if I’d have started watching them if not for him.

I (look forward to/dread) the arrival of June and the end of regular-season broadcasting.

The Inexplicable Survivors of a Widespread Epidemic:

It has been 16 years since Mr. Brothers learned he was H.I.V. positive. Since then, he has never taken AIDS drugs or had any illnesses associated with the disease. Despite his good fortune, Mr. Brothers says he feels isolated.

“I don’t identify with people who are H.I.V. negative because I’m not,” he said. “I could infect someone. I don’t identify with the positive people, because I don’t have to deal with my health and medications and the things they have to worry about.”

Once a month Mr. Brothers visits the laboratory of Dr. Jay Levy, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who is director of the university’s laboratory for tumor and AIDS virus research. Since the epidemic began in 1981, Dr. Levy has been trying to understand why Mr. Brothers and others who are H.I.V. positive can remain medicine-free yet fit for decades, while the average person with H.I.V. progresses to AIDS within 10 years, if untreated.