Milk

Last Tuesday we saw the movie "Milk" in class. The movie is based on a true story about how Harvey Milk and how he fought for the gay peoples rights in San Francisco in the 1970s. We did not have the time to see the whole movie, so I am going to write this post based on the part I have seen.

In the 70s people were very intolerant to people who stood out, and especially the gay people were stroked by this. Harvey Milk was sick of being treated differently from other people because of his sexuality, he moved with his current boyfriend to San Francisco. They were supposed to open some kind of a store and live together. But they were treated very bad and they wanted to do something about it. They started campaigns for the gay people to be accepted in the community. Harvey Milk was a very good orator and after a lot of speeches and different campaigns he had gathered a lot of people. He was all over the news and the American people either hated or loved him. He encouraged people to come out of the closet and be themselves. He was a politician and after years of fighting he won a seat as a city supervisor in 1977. After being a supervisor for 11 month, he was killed by another politician. Milk is known for opening the American peoples mind for gay people. His fight was a necessary fight and I think a lot of gay people are grateful for the work he did.

Politics in the UK

In school today we have learned about how the British politics and how the system is built up. The people elect an MP(Member of Parliament) from their constituency. There are 646 constituencies in the United Kingdom and 646 members of Parliament. These are in the House of Commons and are elected in a general election. There must be a general election at least every five years, but the prime minister can ask the queen to dissolve parliament at any time. That meens he wants a new general election. The prime minister is the leader of the strongest party and his or her party is the government. The parliament “watches” the governement, make the laws and passes the budget.

There are also the House of Lords. The Lords are not elected, but given the title. You can become a lord if you are an expert in a field like: medicine, science, astronomy, education or something else. The House of Commons has much more power than the House of Lords. The picture on the top are the houses of parliament.