What if the government were destroyed?

Okay, suppose there were a vote of No Confidence being held - every single MP is there - and the Houses of Parliament were to get hit by a meteorite, killing everyone. Suppose also that there were a contentious piece of legislation going through the Lords, so they're all dead too. To whom would government devolve? Obviously, Brenda is still Head of State, and elections need to be held, but in the interim, but what does she do? Does she call what's left of the Privy Council? Who governs? Who would become acting Prime Minister?

at this point the poet laureate would be the most senior remaining public figure and would therefore be summoned to buckingham palace to form a government.

Good thread.

That would be an early-day motion, would it?

Boris

with Simon Armitage for Chancellor. And Henry Normal for Home Secretary. None of that lot odes well.

I have never sought nor could ever seek office or power for my own sake, but I cannot deny my people when they are in need.

I'm there for you, bro.

The civil service permenant secretaries would be perfectly capable of seeing the machinery of government ticks over until an election is called. I'd personally trust them more than Prince Charles and local councillors taking over.

The four still-living ex-prime ministers (probably only three as Maggie's past it) would form a caretaker government with assistance from any other ex-ministers still around.

We don't have quite as comprehensive a plan as the "War Plan UK" that applied during the cold war:

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/rsg/features/beyond/

These are the current provisions.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives....binetoffice.gov.uk/media/216734/nss2009v2.pdf

http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consu...CID=PDF&PLA=furl&CRE=nationalsecuritystrategy

I thought the queen could theoretically appoint anyone she wants for Prime Minister?

So theoretically that it can't happen like that. Not without a coup detat.

If there was a putsch wouldn't queeny be outed too?

If there was a putch (other than the mystical Revolution, of course) queeny would be expected to support it. (Doubt that she would, mind you.)

If by this you are implying a having massive shit in the small hours, then yeah.

Immediately the Scots would invade...

what the fuck has hewitts kid got on his wrist

Alan Bennett, presiding over a TOWIE cabinet. Spray tans and digestive biscuits for all!

Now there's a thread title to give me the horn!

Only if he makes it to Buck House alive!

Benjamin Zephaniah as Foreign Secretary and John Hegley as Culture Secretary. Wendy Cope as Defence Secretary.

Only if they were still MPs, by which light they'd have died at the Palace of Westminster. There's no post-Reform Act 1832 precedent for a government being formed from non-elected elements. It's constitutionally-impossible and would set a precedent for dictatorship.

The correct form is that she can appoint anyone who is recommended to her, which basically means that she takes the route of appointing the representative of the party with the biggest majority.

...and be eradicated as a viable threat by Carlisle.

Sod the "what if" thread, let's concentrate on "how to".

In the scenario, there are no MPs left, nor any members of the House of Lords. They must have thought about how to deal with this in WW2. Invoking the Privy Council, with Major as the acting PM (being of the same party as the now-deceased government), while elections are organised and held seems pretty reasonable to me, but the Privy Council would also be rather thinned. And it would still take many months: you'd need a month or so to select candidates, another 2-3 months for the new candidates to sort themselves out as a team and thrash out policy and generate a manifesto, then a final 4-6 weeks for campaigning. That's perhaps 6 months without political direction. Or, if you will, 6 months without politicians around to fuck things up.

Better that (far better! ) than L & L's ridiculous usurpation of constitutional politics. It also needs to be borne in mind that solutions for wartime are not designed to function as solutions in peacetime. Different needs and different laws apply.

You appear to be taking this thread seriously!

Anyway, I enjoyed the thought of John Major trying to keep Blair and Brown from each other's throats.

All governments take the theme of this thread seriously. Why wouldn't I, if I'm interested in exactly what is or isn't likely to happen if some calamity should befall Parliament? Know thine enemy.

Well, he's a decent cricket umpire, but I'm not sure that qualifies him to police a pair of world-class arseholes.