The UK is split into 650 roughly equal by population constituencies, and in each one of these areas, parties put up their candidates in as many of these as they like, and the leader of the largest party goes to the queen to ask if they can be prime minister. In the case where a party has won over half of the seats, its accepted, otherwise the bigger parties will do a deal to form a coalition. In 1974 we had two elections, when the first didn't result in a majority decision for prime minister.
The main parties are: Conservatives, establishment politicians, fiercely pro-business, want to reduce the state, including slowly dismantling the NHS, schools, policing etc. Ideologically close to Repbublicans but without as much religious nonsense, backed by the biggest newspapers and biggest businesses. Anytime they don't win a majority is a major surprise. Their leader is Theresa May, who was installed as leader after Cameron resigned after Brexit. She speaks in vacuous soundbites, and warns about the opposition constantly. She was Home Secretary up until then, and did a terrible job of it, a highlight being blaming the human rights laws passed in the EU from stopping her deporting a criminal because he had a cat. Honestly. Obviously this was a lie. After the attacks last weekend she attacked human rights laws again, pretending that it stops us from policing and deporting criminals. She refused to condemn Trump for his misleading and savage attacks on London's (Labout and Muslim) mayor. She is spineless and yet she is probably the best suited senior Tory for the job.
Labour: Traditionally working class support, pro-public services but they abandoned a lot of principles to win in 1997 and eventually that turned this working class support off. In the UK they are blamed for the global financial crisis (yes, all of it) After the 2015 election, as with every leadership election, the left wing of the party put up Jeremy Corbyn, a principled semi-socialist who does not blindly support the UK or even his own party if he sees fit (eg, the Iraq War) Despite bookmakers giving him less than 1% chance to win on his nomination, he won hugely. This annoyed the Labour MPs, and instantly the Tory backed press attacked him with spurious and ancient claims (the favourite is that he supports the IRA, because he didn't support the army being in Northern Ireland and wasn't cheering every IRA death. He was obviously proved right when the ceasefire and Good Friday agreement was signed, and Northern Ireland has been peaceful ever since, honestly the rhetoric about Muslims today was the same as Irish then, and then it just stopped. The Conservatives actually have an MP who was part of the IRA for some time, but this is never mentioned)
So this spooked the rest of the Labour MPs, and they plotted to get rid of him, undermining him and refusing to serve in the shadow cabinet (the opposition mirrors the actual serving politicians) On Brexit, those that were serving resigned on the hour every hour, and he just installed new MPs who were loyal to him. This went on, papers attacking him, his own party attacking him, etc. until the election was called.
Other parties, Liberal Democrats, want to reverse Brexit, legalise cannabis, generally populist stuff to try to take disillusioned Labour support, they sided with the Tories in 2010 and basically enabled them while abandoning any principles. They're there for people who want a Tory government but want to say they didn't vote for it. Green, we love the enviroment, maybe we could spend money on schools and hospitals rather than nukes type hippies that nobody really takes seriously, and UKIP who had one goal and they've managed it, Nigel Farage stepped down and you've got some bollock suspended on top of a tie leading them. One of their prospective MPs suggested death penalty for suicide bombers. Wales and Scotland have their nationalist parties, Plaid Cymru and Scottish National Party. Scotland is much more serious about breaking away than Wales, and had a referendum in 2014 which was 45/55 in favour of leaving. (Yes this is the fourth major vote in four years, people are sick of it) Northern Ireland has most of their own parties, and Labour and Conservatives didn't always even run. There's a lot of disillusion in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland because 85% of MPs are from England and England is obviously at the forefront of the British parliament. They do have their own assemblies with various powers.
So after Brexit and promising that she wouldn't call an election, and anyway a new law means elections are every five years at a set time, May called an election because Labour were low in the polls and this will help her push through authoritarian stuff like logging every website you've ever been to. Now the electorate at large has spent the past two years hearing other people say how bad Corbyn is, how he loves terrorism and hates the UK, and the BBC are forced to interview him, show speeches in full etc. It turns out he's a pleasant guy who just wants to spend more on schools and hospitals, nationalise energy and transport so we can spend profits on infrastructure and not funnel it out of the country and try a little harder to get tax from companies who don't pay it. The polls tighten, and today, we're expecting that the Conservatives will win of course, but only increase their majority by 20-30 seats, making the past six weeks entirely pointless. If you can, check out the front page of today's Sun, Daily Mail and Daily Express to see how terrified of a fairer society the press barons are.
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