The United Kingdom（Period 1 Welcome to the Unit）
the prime minister is appointed by the sovereign, who is bound by constitutional convention to choose the individual most likely to command the support of the house of commons (normally, the leader of the party with a majority in that body).should the prime minister lose the confidence of the house of commons (indicated, for example, by the passage of a no confidence motion), he or she is morally obliged by similar conventions either to resign (in which case the sovereign can try to find another prime minister who has the house’s confidence) or to request the monarch to call a general election.since the premiership is in some small sense still a de facto position, the office’s powers are mainly a matter of custom rather than law, deriving from the incumbent’s ability to appoint (through the sovereign) his or her cabinet colleagues, as well as from certain uses of the royal prerogative which may be exercised directly by the prime minister, or by the monarch on the prime minister’s advice.some commentators have pointed out that, in practice, the powers of the office are subject to very few checks, especially in an era when parliament and the cabinet are seen as unwilling to challenge dominant prime ministers whose attention is increasingly turned not toward parliament but toward the news media.
the uk under the leadership of the current prime minister tony blair
eighteen years of conservative rule ended in may 1997 when tony blair and the labor party succeeded in the british elections.blair has been compared to former u.s.president bill clinton for his youthful, telegenic(適于電視廣播的) personality and centrist views.he produced constitutional reform that partially decentralized（分散）the uk, leading to the formation of separate parliaments in wales and scotland by 1999.britain turned over its colony hong kong to china in july 1997.
blair’s controversial meeting in oct.1997 with sinn fein’s president, gerry adams, was the first meeting in 76 years between a british prime minister and a sinn fein leader.it infuriated numerous factions but was a symbolic gesture in support of the nascent peace talks in northern ireland.in 1998 the good friday agreement, strongly supported by tony blair, led to the first promise of peace between catholics and protestants since the beginning of the so-called troubles.
along with the u.s., britain launched air strikes against iraq in dec.1998 after saddam hussein expelled un arms inspectors.in the spring of 1999, britain spearheaded the nato operation in kosovo, which resulted in yugoslavian president slobodan milosevic’s withdrawal from the territory.