Quote Originally Posted by Odin
Forgive my ignorance but the tories are conservatives right? thats always been what I thought, but Im a touch off today.

This is part of Parlimentary system that always throws me. In the states the constitution has article I that says congress can declare war, and article II that says the president is commander in chief (essentially he conducts the war).

How does this operate in the parlimentary system? Blair is the head of government by default of his majority. the majority votes to go to war so you now have a binding law? At that point who is in charge of its execution? (IE Commander in chief, please dont say its the monarch....).

Now once we are off the ground, how does the authorization get revoked? Another vote and another law? If yes, is it then binding on the Commander and chief to recall forces or adhere to the terms of the law?

See here the president has the veto, and then there is the 2/3 majority rule needed to override the veto, essentially this is why the dems cant end the war for us, they dont have the 2/3rds to override a bush veto.
AFAIK the PM can order the troops into action at his whim, but any PM who does so on unreasonable grounds can expect a prompt vote of (no) confidence on his ability to head HM's government. Seeking some kind of mandate for his war, and with the general populace clearly against, Blair opted for the House of Commons, which can be more easily controlled (especially as he counted on the support of the Tories/Conservatives). He got that support, but around a quarter of the Labour MPs voted against the party line. While there are no clear rules for establishing authority, Blair fed off the mandate of that vote for the rest of his Premiership.

Authority is revoked when the PM can no longer count on a workable majority, and an election is called to establish a clearer mandate, or the PM resigns and allows a replacement to take over who can command that workable majority. This was what happened to Chamberlain, who could no longer count on the support of Labour, and with enough Conservative MPs also against him to embarrass him. A compromise candidate was found, Churchill, who could gather enough support to form a workable government. Sometimes a PM, on his own initiative, calls for a confidence vote to reestablish his own authority, as Major did with the Conservative party in the 1990s.