The Houses of Parliament are about to get shaken up in anticipation of the General Election that’s going to take place on 8 June, a hot race between current Prime Minister Theresa May and her closest rival (as she sees it, her only rival), Jeremy Corbyn of the Labour Party. In the meantime, the dissolution of Parliament has taken place, and it means that UK voters now get to choose which MPs they want representing their respective local constituencies in the House of Commons.

Before every general election, Parliament sort of ends

At the end of every Prime Minister’s reign over Britain, that current Parliament’s reign also comes to an end, and all the current MPs have to take off and find a new job while the public gets to pick who will take their place.

That’s all that happened last night at midnight – Parliament dissolved, and now, between us, we get to pick a new one.

Parliament is required to be dissolved (by law) 25 working days prior to a general election. So, 8 June election, which is 36 total days away from today (3 May, in case you forgot or had your head buried in the sand all day), is 25 working days away from one minute past midnight last night, when Parliament was officially dissolved. Today, May visited the Queen at Buckingham Palace to make the dissolution of Parliament official and tell her that the election campaign is starting.