Swords, bigbigbig Swords!

[superluser]

And for those listening in the US, 'MP' is Member of Parliment - I believe 'Senator' is the US equivalent.

Llearch is more right.  Two senators are elected from each state at large.  Representatives are elected from individual districts.  Plus, the representatives elect the Speaker of the House, third in line for the presidency, and probably about as close as we come to a prime minister (although she really doesn't have any power).  Senators elect the president pro tem of the Senate, but he doesn't have any power at all.

I think I figured out what an MP was in my mid teens.  Before then, I always wondered why they were reporting about these guys:

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I think I'd be more likely to listen to one of those.

At least if you did so, you stood a reasonable chance of not ending up in the stockade... :-)

[Tapewolf]

'MP' is Member of Parliment - I believe 'Senator' is the US equivalent.

Llearch is more right.

A 1-for-1 match is probably not possible, but yeah - I clean forgot about Congress.

[superluser]

A 1-for-1 match is probably not possible, but yeah - I clean forgot about Congress.

Well, you remembered about one-fifth of it.  There are two parts of the US Congress--the House of Representatives (435 seats) and the Senate (100 seats).  The Senate was designed to be modelled after the Roman Senate, where senators were elected for life.  US senators serve for a fixed term, but are considered senators even after defeat/retirement, and retain some privileges like being able to return to the Senate floor (as non-voting members) under certain conditions.

The closest British analogue for the US Senate is probably the House of Lords.