This picture showing Chinese President Hu Jintao seated next to Gordon Brown and the Queen during the G20 summit was taken as evidence of China's growing clout. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is seated next to Hu. See the similarity? A king and a queen flanking two leaders who weren't popularly elected to office.
I was struck by the fact while reading an Economist article critical of the Thai Prime Minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva:
He rode to office, unelected, thanks to the yellow shirts… Mr Abhisit lacks both influence and legitimacy. To earn both, he will need to face the voters.
But Gordon Brown wasn't elected prime minister by the people either. Yet no one questions his legitimacy.
Why? Because it's not the people who choose the prime minister in Britain. They only elect members of parliament. The MP with a majority in the House of Commons is then invited by the queen to form the government – and becomes the prime minister.
That was how Abhisit became prime minister too. The difference is Brown came to power peacefully, Abhisit didn't. The Thai Supreme Court banned the ruling coalition parties before he came to power.
Brown, on the other hand, had a smooth succession from Tony Blair as leader of the ruling Labour Party. That may have something to do with tradition.
Brown isn't the first British prime minister to occupy 10 Downing Street without a battle of the ballot.
Winston Churchill also came to power without winning a general election. He took over when Neville Chamberlain stepped down in 1940, a year after World War II broke out. Churchill lost the post-war election in 1945.
Alec Douglas-Home met the same fate. He was prime minister only for a year. He took over when Harold Macmillan resigned because of illness in 1963 – and lost the subsequent election in 1964.
Brown, who took over from Tony Blair in June 2007, has been prime minister for nearly two years. He has to face the voters by next year because the last general election was held in May 2005.
