meneatyoghurt - Tumblr blog

meneatyoghurt · 2 days ago

Note

If you haven’t gotten this ask already: the Prime Minister’s First Day? It’s a great play and I love it, but even after looking several things up, I think at least half the jokes go over my head as an (unwilling) American. So (if it’s not too big/overwhelming of an ask), I’d love to hear about the more British-politics side of that play.

(Also, I realise there’s a lot there, so no worries if this is too much to get into!)

Okay, I'll do my best! First of all.

Definitions:

Labour Party - this usually the left-wing (Democratic) party in the UK, although in recent history has become more centralist.

Conservative (or Tory) Party - this is the right-wing (Republican) party.

The Prime Minister is the leader of a political party that is voted into power by the public. So technically the Prime Minister isn't voted in, it is the party that is (unlike in the US). Often, we do think that we're voting for the leader, but if something happens and that leader steps down for whatever reason (a vote of no confidence within the party, for instance) then the party votes for someone else to be the leader, who ends up being Prime Minister and the public don't have a choice in the matter. The British public vote for the political party to be in power. We do this by voting for our local Member of Parliament (MP), and then the total votes for each party are added up. (It's not quite as simple as that, but that will do as an explanation!)

This can be shared with other political parties if they don't get enough votes for an overall majority (known as a coalition government), in which case hardly anything gets decided within Parliament because they spend a lot of time arguing about it! (Other countries in Europe often have a coalition government and manage to get things done.)

The Prime Minister leads the entire UK, however each country also has it's own devolved government with its own leader, which makes local government decisions.

Scotland, Wales, and North Ireland all have a First Minister. I won't go into the different politics of those countries, particularly Northern Ireland, because it's incredibly complex!

I'll just go through the play now, highlighting anything that might need an explanation.

The New Statesman is a political magazine that is typically left-wing leaning, and has (almost) always supported the Labour Party, so Sam is indicating that the Prime Minister in this play is a Tory.

Downing Street, specifically Number 10, is where the Prime Minister lives. It's a big townhouse in London.

The "main room" aka Cabinet Room/Office is a large meeting room within 10 Downing Street is where the Cabinet (the various high up members of Parliament, chosen by the Prime Minister to lead on various policy areas like Health, Transport, Defence etc) meets to discuss things. (It is in fact, NOT an ancient cabinet! It's essentially a big room with a large table in it - no cabinets in sight.)

The comment Sam makes about "don't mention the parties" and the audience boo-ing is in reference to the fact that during COVID, when the rest of the UK was in lockdown, the Prime Minister of the time, Boris Johnson, was having parties and breaking lockdown rules. It did not go down well, needless to say!

Sam calls Tom, "Mr Brown", when he comes in as the previous Prime Minister. Which could make Tom be Gordon Brown, who was Prime Minister from 2007-2010, although he was Scottish and Tom does definitely not have a Scottish accent! That would make AJ's Prime Minister (if we were sticking to history) David Cameron, who was indeed a Conservative Prime Minister.

The "Python meeting" that AJ mentions which you can hear Sam cackling about - I think he's referring to a COBRA meeting. Which stands for Cabinet Office Briefing Room (COBR - but media calls it COBRA I guess cos it sounds better). They are used for meetings about national or regional crises, or international events that have implications for the UK. So during COVID, for instance, there were a lot of COBRA meetings. For AJ's Prime Minister to be having to go into a COBRA meeting on his first day means things are not going well!

The Prime Minister typically goes to see the reigning monarch (King in this case) very soon after they are voted in. This is a ceremonial meeting, as although the King/Queen is officially Head of State of the UK, the Prime Minister is the one with the power, which they wield on behalf of the sovereign. (This was not the case in the past, of course.) The sovereign asks the Prime Minister to form a government (as whilst elections were going on, government was "dissolved" and a lot of things were put on hold). Now the monarch and the prime minister meet on a weekly basis to discuss whatever they need to.

Tom's throwaway line, "It changes a man. Or a woman. But that doesn't happen much." is referring to the fact that the UK has had, to date, three female Prime Ministers: Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, and Liz Truss (who only lasted about a week (okay, it was technically 50 days)).

And now we meet the King! (Who I think is considerably nicer than Sam portrays, although King Charles is known for being outspoken about things he cares about, such as the environment. As the sovereign is meant to remain neutral, it's a fine line he's treading.)

Tony Blair was a Labour Prime Minister. Theresa May was a Conservative Prime Minister. The "running through a field of wheat" comment that Tom says is referring to an interview she did where she was asked what the naughtiest thing she ever did was. The answer was that she and a friend used to "run through the fields of wheat, the farmers weren't too pleased about that." She was a wild child!

"Make sure Andrew is not in a school." This is referring to Prince Andrew, who was a friend of Jeffrey Epstein. He has been accused of being involved in sexual activity with a minor who had been trafficked by Epstein. A lawsuit did happen but was settled out of court. He's basically been removed from the Royal Family as much as they can - he no longer has royal duties and no longer has security provided by the royal family.

The "can't sweat" comment is because in an interview with Prince Andrew, there was an accusation that he'd been seen hot and sweaty whilst dancing, but his retort was that it couldn't have been him as he doesn't sweat any more thanks to receiving adrenaline after an injury during the Falklands War (this is commonly viewed as nonsense).

"Inbreeding" - well, like a lot of aristocracy, a lot of the royal family are related to each other. Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth (our current King's parents) were third cousins. King Charles is known for having quite large ears, hence Sam's comment about hearing.

Sam quizzing AJ about what the Conservative Party Leader would say about the monarchy and to think it through is because the Conservatives are typically royalists, so wouldn't be criticising the monarchy that much.

Sam saying that the King is the voice of God, the head of the Church of England, is true. King Henry VIII, when he wanted to divorce his wife to marry another, the Pope wouldn't let him. So he basically said, "fuck you, I'll be Head of the Church and allow myself to get divorced". (Although the monarch is now "Supreme Governor of the Church of England", as Christ is technically the Head.)

Sam does manage to name the most recent Prime Ministers of the time, going backwards in time: Rishi Sunak (2022-2024), Liz Truss (Sept to Oct 2022 - she was particularly shit at her job!), Boris Johnson (2019-2022), Theresa May (2016-2019), David Cameron (2010-2016), and Gordon Brown (2007-2010). Really as King Charles, he would have only received Truss and Sunak (at the time of the play - we currently have another Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer) as all the others would have had an audience with his mother, Queen Elizabeth II.

"Checking on the Prime Minster's car" is a subtle reference to the theory that the Royal Family were responsible for the death of Princess Diana, who was killed in a car accident in France. Obviously, Tom makes it very clear what they're talking about a little later on.

"Camilla's out in the kennels." Queen Camilla, King Charles' wife. She's fond of dogs, so Tom meant looking after them, rather than sleeping with them in the kennels!

"Beauregard Brunel" is a reference to Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who was a famous English engineer.

"Someone broke in [to Buckingham Palace] with a crossbow and tried to shoot Mummy." is a reference to when, in 2021, someone got onto the grounds of Windsor Castle with a crossbow and threatened to kill the Queen. They were jailed for nine years for treason.

"Pure diamonds, stolen from the Indian subcontinent." The British Empire is well-known for bringing back all sorts of artifacts and gems from all over the world and claiming them as their own. The Crown Jewels contain gemstones from all over, including the Koh-I-Noor, which is a large diamond from India. For some time, India, Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan claimed ownership of it, however it was ruled in 2018 that it was obtained legally.

"Recount" - so, the ruling party is voted in by people voting for their local ministers all over the country. In the cases of tight margins, there is often a recount to confirm who wins. The party with the majority of ministers voted in gets the majority in Parliament and the party leader becomes Prime Minister. So Tom is implying that there were some close votes, and rather than the Conservatives winning and James James being PM, Mr Brown returns to office.

"Philip Schofield" - he was a morning breakfast show tv presenter, who came out late in life as a homosexual (he had been married to a woman and had children) and had been having an affair with a much younger man who worked on the breakfast show, and lied about it to a lot of people. It was a bit of a scandal (not the homosexual part, the affair with a much younger man when there was potentially a power unbalance between the two of them).

"CBBC" - Children's BBC - the channel of the BBC that shows children's programs. A reference to Andrew allegedly having a proclivity for underage girls.

"Anne's horses" - Princess Anne (Queen Elizabeth's eldest daughter, and King Charles' sister), a well-known equestrian. She competed at the Olympics.

#good effort #there's a LOT to explain in that play and this is pretty comprehensive #shoot from the hip

34 notes · View notes