Base of democracy

While I'm on the subject of Blair and Brown, I'll quote Thanos Kalamidas at Ovi Magazine:

Since when does somebody become prime minister not because he/she was elected by the public, the base of the democracy, but they were chosen by the retiring prime minister? [...]

Gordon Brown is the new British Prime Minister. A prime minister never elected for this position from the public, a prime minister who will use all the government and party mechanism to promote himself in advance of his opponents inside the party, the man who will finish the destruction of the Labour party and whatever else Tony Blair has left behind.

Since when does somebody become prime minister not because she was elected by the public? Let's ask John Major, James Callaghan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Macmillan, Anthony Eden... oh, and Matti Vanhanen. What say you, gentlemen?

"The question betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of how a parliamentarian system works. A prime minister's legitimacy is not based on winning an election, but on enjoying the confidence of the parliament. That's why it's called parliamentarism."

Thanks, guys!