SURELY IT CAN'T BE TRUE?

Britain's government is made up of 1434 individuals. Lets look at how they get chosen...

650 MPS

Elected by First Past The Post (FPTP).

What does that mean?
The majority of people's votes (52.8% of those cast in 2010) went to candidates that were not elected. In addition to this, around 380 seats are "safe" seats, which means that a party will get elected regardless of who the candidate is. Therefore the number of candidates that meaningfully undergo an election every 5 years is just 268, and the number of people who actually decide those results is less than half a million. 

Is that democratic? 
Largely not.

763 Lords

Mostly appointed by sitting MPs. A further 92 Lords are appointed by birth, like the Queen. Then there are 26 Lords who are chosen because of their role in the established Church of England. 
 
What does that mean?
Peerage" is a quack system of privilege conferred by the Queen that has feudal origins. The Life Peerage Act of 1958 then allowed the government to create life peerages, like the Queen. Normally the Prime Minister chooses peers (from their Party's major donors), and since 2000 there has been a tokenistic "House of Lords Appointments Commission" which seems to just demonstrate that no-one really knows whats going on when it comes to choosing who should sit in parliament's Upper Chamber.   
 
Is that Democratic? 
Lord no. 

21 Royals

Selected by cognatic primogeniture, otherwise known as the Big Womb Lottery.
 
What does that mean?
There are currently 20 Royals with the HRH prefix, plus the Queen herself. These people are largely puppets who add ceremonial flourish to the rest of the UK government. 8 members of the Royal family receive Parliamentary Annuities and have their own roles and powers. No-one actually knew what the "Royal Perogative" could entail until it was written down in 2003 as including a list of 15 powers. Because the Queen is unelected, she can't actually do many of these powers by choice, but that means that the Prime Minister can, without asking parliament. 
 
Is that Democratic? 
Not even slightly.

What does that mean?

There are 4 systems for choosing the UK government:
Elected
These people you get to vote for once every 5 years, but there's a more than 50% chance your vote will be wasted
Safe seats
These people will almost certainly get elected so are effectively just selected by the party
Appointed
These people are selected by the party. Or by the Church. Or just randomly by an independent committee
Hereditary 
These people are selected by the Big Womb Lottery
...and here's the balance of power:

So what is a Democracy anyway?

"Democracy is a form of government in which all eligible citizens participate equally—either directly or indirectly through elected representatives." - Wikipedia

"Governed by the people" - Greek etymology

Unfortunately there isn't a rulebook for what a democracy should look like. This means lots of different countries claim to be a democracy whilst having completely different systems for choosing who their governments are. However, if we set the bar really, really low, the simplest definition of a democracy would be:

When MOST of the people in a

 country get to choose who

 MOST of the Government is.



The UK simply does not pass this test.


In fact, we're not even close to passing that test...


Most people don't get to choose

Every 4 years, 65% of adults in the UK go to a polling station to choose 45% of the government.

Usually it takes 35% of the vote to win a majority government.

That means that the elected part of the government tends to represent the views of just 22.75% of the population. 

The other 77.25% will have to wait another 5 years to get asked again. Or become a Lord.