Resource help on British politics?

[nyxelestia]

Setting: modern day UK
Searches: um, kind of what I need help with

Basically, I plan to write a modern AU fanfic, including a Prince of Wales and the Prime Minister's son. (This is Merlin fic to be exact, Prince!Arthur and PM's-Son!Merlin, with, obviously, King Uther, and less obviously, PM Hunith, Merlin's mother

Comments

[bananrama]

http://www.parliament.uk/ provides a good neutral overview of how Parliament/MPs/constitutional things work.

[arguingvitality]

The BBC website also tends to have a few good guides and is, by it's very nature, unbiased.

But I've been a politics student for just over three years now so feel free to message me if you do need any help! I can't promise I'll know everything because, fuck, UK politics is quite complicated! But I have a lot of textbooks and other resources lying around that aren't available online! And I'm happy to help! :)

[nyxelestia]

Thank you! I'll try not to spam you with question and plot possibilities. That said, I make no promises.

[arguingvitality]

Haha honestly don't worry about it! I'm such a politics nerd and I like sharing this :p

[melannen]

Okay, this is going to sound really terrible? But if you want a good, non-politicized primer on modern British politics, join uk_lolitics, follow it, and backread; the community only dates to this May. (It's the RPF/fannish discussion community for modern British politics, and they discuss relationships and recent history and how things actually work, and follow and explain all the press coverage and Parliamentary debates and reshuffles of power, but with no serious partisan business allowed, and it doesn't assume that everybody joining up for the rpf will already understand how the government works.) Although admittedly, uk_lolitics' main opinion on the Queen is that she 'ships it. :D

[naath]

I think that One might find Oneself short a head (OK, we probably wouldn't do THAT again) if it were to become common knowledge that One were doing that.

There was a BIG hooha over something Charles did a while back... hummm, can I find it? Here we are; some planning stuff
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/25/prince-charles-chelsea-barracks-planning

[melannen]

Well, I did say it would require patience and finesse, which are things that Prince Charles seems to only very rarely be accused of. ^_^ I can see a case where a King like Uther could start from where Charles currently is, and with more subtlety than that, just weather the early objections until people are used to dealing with it? But it wouldn't be easy. It will certainly be interesting to watch, from a safe ocean away, what happens when ya'll do get a new King who may have Opinions.

(The Royals are British citizens, aren't they? That article implied that Charles should have registered his discontent through the same bureaucratic channels as any other citizen. Which. Um. Would have been fun. ^_^)

[naath]

I'm actually not sure on that last point. Possibly permitted but against tradition, but possibly still "OMG YOU DID WHUT?".

When Charles is King we will all RUN AND HIDE. Or maybe decide we're bored of being a Monarchy ;-) I doubt "letting him be in charge" will ever happen. Uther of course might be more subtle and careful and, er, stuff. Also magic might help? It is possible to imagine us tending more towards the Monarch running things but as of Right Now with the current bunch of Royals it seems Very Very Unlikely.

[rinraj]

Hey, this isn't actually helpful, but I read "Prince of Wales!" and "Prime Minister's son!" and I was like "I HOPE THIS IS A MERLIN FIC!!!" and I was really quite excited when I saw that it was. :D

[nyxelestia]

:D

+ drive by icon love :)

[naath]

Wikipedia isn't dreadful on the subject; as a starting point at least.

The major political parties all have websites you can look at for a clearly biased view of up-to-date politics; although presumably you're story will be set in some AU where the major players are all different people so exact policy details possibly don't matter too much.

For Crown-Politician interaction the 2006 film "The Queen" is pretty good, you could give it a watch. The Crown isn't generally directly involved in politics, although the PM and the Queen meet weekly to discuss things; the extent to which the Queen advises vs just sits and listens presumably varies with Monarch, PM and Issue but they definately meet. Direct royal involvement in politics is Not On (not sure if it's actually Illegal), although in theory the Queen is In Charge in practice if she ever tried to exercise any of the powers she theoretically has... well, there'd be a LOT of very cross people!

[naath]

Oh, and you should read the BBC's news output; to see what we're concerned about and what's going on, and get a feel for "life in the UK".

news.bbc.co.uk

(and their election coverage from earlier in the year had lots of details about how our elections work)