Transitions
The six-week campaign of the United Kingdom’s 2024 general election is over. After 14 years of Conservative rule, the Labour Party was swept into power with a 172-seat-strong majority in the House of Commons. But despite those results, Sir Keir Starmer MP will lead the next Labour government with only 33.8 percent of the votes–the lowest vote share ever received by a party who won a majority in the Commons.
Precisely because the UK constitution is unwritten, constitutional conventions govern the choreography of these post-election ceremonies. Shortly after the Labour win had been clear, the outgoing prime minister, Rishi Sunak MP, already conceded to Starmer. By daybreak, Sunak announced his intention to visit the king and resign before midday.
Sunak, defeated and presiding over a party which suffered its worst defeat in its history, made his final speech outside 10 Downing Street and drove away to Buckingham Palace. We will never know what the king and Sunak discussed, but convention dictates that he must recommend Starmer to form the next government.
As soon as Sunak was off his way, the palace immediately summoned Starmer who, by this point, is still the leader of the opposition. Between the moment the king accepted Sunak’s resignation and until Starmer accepts the king’s invitation to form a government, the UK did not have a prime minister (or a government, for that matter).
Convention dictates that the king asks Starmer to form a government on his behalf. Starmer only became prime minister the moment he accepted the king’s invitation.
Starmer drove from Buckingham Palace to Downing Street. A la Tony Blair in 1997, he walked the final few yards before the iconic door, greeting well-wishers, supporters and civil servants lined along the street. He went on to deliver his inaugural speech outside No 10 (using Sunak’s lectern).
And just like that, in a matter of minutes, the government of the United Kingdom changed. No ceremonial fanfares, like what we’re accustomed to here in the Philippines–just two private audiences with the king. The transition of power is complete the moment the incoming prime minister “kisses the hand” of the monarch.
I wrote this note as a longtime observer of British politics, and my natural curiosity over their brand of parliamentary democracy. In a way, though, I cannot help but see parallels between what happened in London and what I am going through right now (as in this very weekend).
A sidebar: I often avoid writing too much about myself because there are a lot of more important matters to discuss. It wouldn’t hurt, I think, to have this small corner of the internet where I can share what I am thinking.
Preliminary reading assignments and tasks for Monday’s Introduction to Law has been sent today. We’re expected to complete most of the first module before we meet on Monday afternoon. The instructions advised that, on average, it took three hours to complete the tasks. I have already exceeded that average.
Regardless, I do not find solace that this week has been a whirlwind, much like the Sunak-Starmer handover of power. I went from reading about hairy black holes and quantitative biophysics to distinguishing ratio decidendi from obiter dictum.
Some backtrack. This week, I joined the 42nd Samahang Pisika ng Pilipinas Physics Conference in Batangas City. I presented my paper where we presented some of the results of my thesis. Though this year’s conference venue is nearer (last year, they were in Siargao), I still found the plenary speakers and posters rather endearing and interesting.
But after we went home on Friday evening, barely 48 hours later, I will begin my first day as a law student. It also doesn’t help that just a few weeks ago, I was seriously considering backing out from my place in law school to enter graduate school (probably physics, likely meteorology). Working with my research reinvigorated my passion for rigorous scientific inquiry. In the end, my burning passion for justice and belief that the law should be a force for good prevailed.
And I haven’t even recovered my lost sleep. Pardon my incoherencies as this weekend, I will force to transform myself from being a hardcore physics student into a diligent law student. Maybe, physics and law are more continuous than discrete. So much for transitions.