Milk

Last Tuesday we saw the movie "Milk" in class. In this American biographical film from 2008, Sean Penn potraits politician and LGBT (Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender) activist Harvey Milk. The story covers how he became the first openly gay man to be elected into the public office in California. In addition to showing us his upsides and downsides in his career as well as his personal life. Harvey Milk was of great importance to gay people all across America. He fought for their rights all through his life until he was killed by another politician in 1978.

The movie is directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black. Actors starring is Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, James Franco and Emile Hirsch. It received eight Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, winning two for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Sean Penn and Best Original Screenplay for Dustin Lance Black.

My impression of the movie is divided. I think the story is very powerful and a huge part of American history that has to be told. The actors do an excellent job playing these characters and the movie surely deserve the prizes it has been awarded. However, to be completely honest, the movie is not really the type of genre that I usually prefer. I didn't find it very exciting.

On the other hand, all in all, it is a quite brilliant movie which I actually would recommend to others. Because of the important story on how the gay people carried out the fight for their rights. It was the beginning to where we are today, and this movie gives us the journey on how we got there.

The Winner Takes All

"Politics is about power, about winning power and using it to do what you think is right."
Britain is ruled by a democracy. In other words, the people decide who wins the power and who gets to be in charge. They arrange their democracy through representative government. The representatives sit in parliament. They make all the decisions that have to be made, and change the things that needs to be changed. How the representatives are chosen is through an election, where the people of Britain casts their vote on who they believe should run the country.

So, on Election Day, which is always on a Thursday, the polling stations are open all day. In the UK, it is a "first-past-the-post" system, this means that only one candidate is elected, and that is the candidate witht the most votes. There are no extra seats in the House of Commons, it is the winner who takes all.

The British system of government consists of the prime minister, who is the leader of the strongest party, a parliament, which makes the law in addition to passing the budget and watching over the goverment, the house of commons, that  includes 646 representatives who are called Members of Parliament (MP), and last but not least; the house of lords.