Everything about The Politics Of The United Kingdom totally explained
The
Politics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland takes place in the framework of a constitutional monarchy, in which the
Monarch is
head of state and the
Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom is the
head of government.
Executive power is exercised by the
UK government and the
devolved government of
Scotland and Executives of
Wales and
Northern Ireland.
Legislative power is vested in both the government and the two chambers of Parliament, the
House of Commons and the
House of Lords, as well as in the
Scottish parliament and Welsh and Northern Irish assemblies. The
judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature, though several
senior judges are still members of the
House of Lords, which is currently the highest court of the UK for civil cases and the highest court of England and Wales for criminal cases. Starting in 2009 however, the judicial role of the
House of Lords will be scrapped under the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005.
The UK is a
multi-party system and since the 1920s, the two largest political parties have been the
Conservative Party and the
Labour Party. Though coalition and minority governments have been an occasional feature of
Parliamentary politics, the
first-past-the-post electoral system used for
general elections tends to maintain the dominance of these two parties, though each has in the past century relied upon a third party to deliver a working majority in Parliament.
The
Liberal Democrats, a party formed by the merger of the former
Liberal Party and
Social Democratic Party in 1988, is the third largest party in the British parliament. It seeks a reform of the electoral system to address the dominance of the two-party system.
Growing support for 'Nationalist' parties in Scotland and Wales led to proposals for
devolution in the 1970s though only in the 1990s did devolution actually happen. Today, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland each possess a legislature and government alongside that of the United Kingdom, responsible for devolved matters. However, this increased
autonomy and
devolution of executive and legislative powers hasn't contributed to a reduction in support for full independence. Indeed, the principal pro-independence party, the
Scottish National Party, won 20 extra MSPs at the 2007 Scottish parliament elections and now forms the
Scottish Government.
The
constitution is uncodified, being made up of
constitutional conventions,
statutes and other elements.
This system of government, known as the
Westminster system, has been adopted by other countries as well, such as
Canada,
India,
Australia,
New Zealand,
Singapore,
Malaysia and
Jamaica, countries that made up part of the
British Empire.
Monarch
The
head of state,
theoretical and nominal source of
executive,
judicial and
legislative power in the UK is the
British monarch, currently Queen
Elizabeth II. However, sovereignty in the UK no longer rests with the monarch, since the
English Bill of Rights in 1689, which established the principle of
Parliamentary sovereignty. Nonetheless, the monarch is still known as the sovereign.
The British sovereign possesses many hypothetical powers, including the right to choose any British citizen to be her
Prime Minister and the right to call and dissolve
Parliament whenever she wishes. However, in accordance with the current uncodified constitution, the Prime Minister is the leader of the largest party in the
House of Commons, and Parliament is
dissolved at the time suggested by the PM. The monarch retains the ability to deny giving a
bill Royal Assent, although in modern times this becomes increasingly more unlikely, as it would cause a constitutional crisis.
Queen Anne was the last monarch to exercise this power, which she did on
11 March 1708 with regard to a bill "for the settling of Militia in
Scotland". Other royal powers called
royal prerogative, such as patronage to appoint ministers and the ability to declare war, are exercised by the Prime Minister and the
Cabinet, with the formal consent of the Queen.
Today the sovereign has an essentially
ceremonial role restricted in exercise of power by
convention and
public opinion. However the monarch does continue to exercise three essential rights: the
right to be consulted, the right to advise and the right to warn. As a consequence of these ideals, Prime Ministers hold weekly confidential meetings with the monarch in which the sovereign holds the right to express her opinions.
In formal terms, the
Crown in Parliament is sovereign even though in practical terms the political head of the UK is the
Prime Minister (
Gordon Brown since
27 June 2007). However, the real powers of position of the monarch in the British Constitution shouldn't be downplayed. The monarch does indeed retain some power, but it has to be used with discretion. She fulfills the necessary constitutional role as head of state, and with the absence of a distinct separation of powers as in the American model and a strong second chamber, acts as a final check on executive power. If a time came to pass, for instance, when a law threatened the freedom or security of her
subjects and citizens, the Queen could decline royal assent, free as she's from the eddies of party politics. Furthermore, armed removal of her by Parliament or Government would be difficult, as the monarch remains
commander-in-chief of the armed forces, who swear an
oath of allegiance to her.
Executive
Government performs the
Executive functions of the United Kingdom on behalf of the Sovereign, in whom executive power is theoretically and nominally vested. The monarch appoints a
Prime Minister as the head of Her Majesty's Government, guided by the strict convention that the Prime Minister should be the member of the House of Commons most likely to be able to form a Government with the support of the House. In practice, this means that the leader of the
political party with an absolute majority of seats in the House of Commons is chosen to be the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister then selects the other
Ministers which make up the Government and act as political heads of the various
Government Departments. About twenty of the most senior government ministers make up the
Cabinet. In total, there are approximately 100 ministers that comprise the government. In accordance with
constitutional convention, all ministers within the government are either
Members of Parliament or
peers in the
House of Lords.
As in some other
parliamentary systems of government (especially those based upon the
Westminster System), the executive (called "the government") is drawn from and is answerable to Parliament - a successful
vote of no confidence will force the government either to resign or to seek a
parliamentary dissolution and a
general election. In practice, members of parliament of all major parties are strictly controlled by
whips who try to ensure they vote according to party policy. If the government has a large majority, then they're very unlikely to lose enough votes to be unable to pass legislation.
In November 2005, the Blair government suffered its first defeat, on a
proposal to extend the period for detaining terrorist suspects to 90 days. Before this, the last bill proposed by a government that was defeated in the
House of Commons was the
Shop Hours Bill in 1986, one of only three in the 20th century. Governments with a small
majority, or
coalition governments are much more vulnerable to defeat. They sometimes have to resort to extreme measures, such as "wheeling in" sick MPs, to get the necessary majority.
Margaret Thatcher in 1983 and
Tony Blair in 1997 were swept into power with such large majorities that even allowing for dissent within their parties, they were assured of winning practically all parliamentary votes, and thus were able to implement radical programmes of legislative reform and innovation. But other Prime Ministers, such as
John Major in 1992, who enjoy only slender majorities can easily lose votes if relatively small numbers of their
backbench MPs reject the whip and vote against the Government's proposals. As such, Governments with small majorities find it extremely difficult to implement controversial legislation and tend to become bogged down cutting deals with factions within their party or seeking assistance from other political parties.
Government departments
The Government of the United Kingdom contains a number of
ministries known mainly, though not exclusively as departments, for example
Ministry of Defence. These are politically led by a
Government Minister who is often a
Secretary of State and member of the
Cabinet. He or she may also be supported by a number of junior Ministers. In practice, several government departments and Ministers have responsibilities that cover England alone, where devolved bodies having responsibility for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, (for example - the
Department of Health), or responsibilities that mainly focus on England (such as the
Department for Children, Schools and Families).
Implementation of the Minister's decisions is carried out by a permanent politically neutral organization known as the
civil service. Its constitutional role is to support the Government of the day regardless of which political party is in power. Unlike some other democracies, senior civil servants remain in post upon a change of Government. Administrative management of the Department is led by a head civil servant known in most Departments as a
Permanent Secretary. The majority of the civil service staff in fact work in
executive agencies, which are separate operational organizations reporting to Departments of State.
"Whitehall" is often used as a synonym for the central core of the Civil Service. This is because most Government Departments have headquarters in and around the former Royal Palace
Whitehall.
Legislature
Parliament is at the centre of the political system in the United Kingdom. It is the supreme legislative body (for example, there's
parliamentary sovereignty), and Government is drawn from and answerable to it. Parliament is
bicameral, consisting of the
House of Commons and the
House of Lords.
House of Commons
constituencies of broadly equal population (decided by a
Boundary Commission for each of the four
constituent countries of the
United Kingdom), each of which elects a
Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons. Of the 646 MPs there's currently only one who doesn't belong to a
political party. In modern times, all Prime Ministers and
Leaders of the Opposition have been drawn from the Commons, not the Lords.
Alec Douglas-Home resigned from his peerages days after becoming Prime Minister in 1963, and the last Prime Minister before him from the Lords left in 1902 (the
Marquess of Salisbury).
One party usually has a majority in Parliament, because of the use of the
First Past the Post electoral system, which has been conducive in creating the current
two party system. The monarch normally asks a person commissioned to form a government simply whether it can
survive in the House of Commons, something which majority governments are expected to be able to do. In exceptional circumstances the monarch asks someone to 'form a government'
with a parliamentary minority which in the event of no party having a majority requires the formation of a
coalition government. This option is only ever taken at a time of national emergency, such as war-time. It was given in 1916 to
Andrew Bonar Law, and when he declined, to
David Lloyd George and in 1940 to Winston Churchill. It is worth noting that a government isn't formed by a vote of the House of Commons, merely a commission from the monarch. The House of Commons gets its first chance to indicate confidence in the new government when it votes on the
Speech from the Throne (the legislative programme proposed by the new government).
House of Lords
The
House of Lords was previously a
hereditary,
aristocratic chamber. It is currently mid-way through extensive reforms, the most recent of these being enacted in the
House of Lords Act 1999. The house currently consists of two parts, the
Lords Temporal and
Lords Spiritual. Lords Temporal include appointed members (life peers with no hereditary right for their descendants to sit in the house) and the remaining 92 hereditary peers. The
Lords Spiritual represent the established
Church of England and consists of 26 members, the
Archbishops of York and Canterbury and the 24 most senior
Bishops of the church. It currently acts to review legislation formed by the House of Commons, with the power to propose amendments, and exercises a
suspensive veto. This allows it to delay legislation if it doesn't approve for twelve months. However, the use of vetoes is limited by convention and the operation of the
Parliament Acts: the Lords may not veto the "money bills" or major manifesto promises (see
Salisbury convention). Persistent use of the veto can also be overturned by the
Parliament Act by the Commons. Often governments will accept changes in legislation in order to avoid both the time delay, and the negative publicity of being seen to clash with the Lords. However the Lords still retain a full veto in acts which would extend the life of Parliament beyond the 5 year term limit introduced by the
Parliament Act 1911.
The House of Lords is currently also the final court of appeal on civil cases within the
United Kingdom, although in practice only a small subset of the House of Lords, known as the
Law Lords, hears judicial cases. In accordance with the legal doctrine of
stare decisis, the House of Lords supersedes all civil and criminal courts in England & Wales. (The House of Lords has no role in criminal case appeals in Scotland.) The
Constitutional Reform Act 2005 outlines plans for a
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to replace the role of the Law Lords.
Judiciary
The
Lord Chancellor (prior to the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005) was the head of the judiciary in
England and Wales. He appointed
judges and
magistrates for criminal courts on behalf of the
Sovereign. Since 2005, the
Lord Chief Justice has assumed the role as head of the judicial branch of government. The Lord Chancellor fell into all the three branches of government, taking roles in the
executive,
legislature and
judiciary, which is a peculiarity amongst many
liberal democracies in the world today. However, the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005 removes much of the power in this role and gives it to others in the British government, mainly the newly created post of
Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs. Another part of The Lord Chancellor's duties in the House of Lords has been replaced by a dedicated
Lord Speaker, who acts as a permanent
presiding officer for the House of Lords.
For most types of cases, the court of last resort in the UK is the
House of Lords, in practice, only the
Law Lords hear cases. For Scottish criminal cases, the
High Court of Justiciary sitting as the Court of Criminal Appeal is the court of last resort. The
Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the court of last resort for devolution matters. As is true in the House of Lords, as a rule, only the Law Lords hear cases submitted to the Privy Council. Under the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005, judicial functions of the House of Lords and devolution matters assigned to the Privy Council will be transferred to a new
Supreme Court of the United Kingdom once a home for the new court is completed.
Devolution
Though the UK parliament remains the sovereign parliament,
Scotland also has its own parliament and
Wales and
Northern Ireland have assemblies.
England, therefore, is the only
constituent country of the UK to not have a national assembly or parliament
All three devolved institutions are elected by
proportional representation:the
Additional Member System is used in Scotland and Wales, and
Single Transferable Vote is used in Northern Ireland. The
devolved governments have some legislative and other powers, but no legal
right to exist.
De jure, they can have their powers broadened, narrowed or changed by an Act of the UK Parliament. However, Scotland has a tradition of popular sovereignty as opposed to parliamentary sovereignty and the fact that the Scottish parliament was established following a referendum would make it politically difficult to significantly alter its powers without popular consent.
The UK is therefore a
unitary state with a devolved system of government. This contrasts with a
federal system, in which sub-parliaments or state parliaments and assemblies have a clearly defined constitutional
right to exist and a
right to exercise certain constitutionally guaranteed and defined functions and can't be unilaterally abolished by Acts of the central parliament.
England
Tendencies to devolution with the wider United Kingdom have had only little resonance in England. There is little (but growing) appetite for a
devolved English parliament, although senior Conservatives and Liberal Democrats have voiced concerns in regard to the
West Lothian Question, which is raised where certain policies for England are set by MPs from all four constituent nations whereas similar policies for Scotland or Wales might be decided in the devolved assemblies by legislators from those countries alone. Alternative proposals for English
regional government have stalled, following a poorly received referendum on devolved government for the
North East of England, which had hitherto been considered the region most in favour of the idea, with the exception of
Cornwall, where there's widespread support for a
Cornish Assembly, including all five Cornish MPs. England is therefore governed according to the balance of parties across the whole of the United Kingdom.
The government has no plans to establish an English parliament or assembly although several pressure groups are calling for one. One of their main arguments is that MPs (and thus voters) from different parts of the UK have inconsistent powers. Currently an MP from Scotland can vote on legislation which affects only England but MPs from England (or indeed Scotland) can't vote on matters devolved to the Scottish parliament. Indeed, the current
Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who is an MP for a Scottish constituency, introduces some laws that only affect England and not his own constituency. This anomaly is known as the
West Lothian question.
The policy of the UK Government in England was to establish elected
regional assemblies with no legislative powers. The
London Assembly was the first of these, established in 2000, following a
referendum in 1998, but further plans were abandoned following rejection of a proposal for an elected assembly in
North East England in a
referendum in 2004. Unelected regional assemblies remain in place in eight
regions of England.
Northern Ireland
The current government of Northern Ireland was established as a result of the 1998
Good Friday Agreement. This created the
Northern Ireland Assembly. The Assembly is a
unicameral body consisting of 108 members elected under the
Single Transferable Vote form of
proportional representation. The Assembly is based on the principle of power-sharing, in order to ensure that both communities in Northern Ireland,
unionist and
nationalist, participate in governing the region. It has power to legislate in a wide range of areas and to elect the
Northern Ireland Executive (cabinet). It sits at
Parliament Buildings at Stormont in
Belfast.
The Assembly has authority to legislate in a field of competences known as "transferred matters". These matters are not explicitly enumerated in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 but instead include any competence not explicitly retained by the Parliament at Westminster. Powers reserved by Westminster are divided into "excepted matters", which it retains indefinitely, and "reserved matters", which may be transferred to the competence of the Northern Ireland Assembly at a future date. Health and education are "transferred" but criminal law and police are "reserved" and royal succession, defence and international relations are all "excepted".
While the Assembly was in suspension, due to scandals involving the main parties and the
Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), its legislative powers were exercised by the UK government, which effectively had power to legislate by decree. Laws that would normally be within the competence of the Assembly were passed by the UK government in the form of
Orders-in-Council rather than legislative acts.
There has been a significant decrease in violence over the last twenty years, though the situation remains tense, with the more hard-line parties such as
Sinn Féin and the
Democratic Unionists now holding the most parliamentary seats (see
Demographics and politics of Northern Ireland).
Scotland
Scottish Parliament was established by the
Scotland Act 1998 and its first meeting as a
devolved legislature was on
12 May 1999. The parliament has the power to pass laws and has limited tax-varying capability. Another of its jobs is to hold the
Scottish Government to account. The "devolved matters" over which it has responsibility include
education,
health, agriculture, and
justice. A degree of domestic authority, and all foreign policy, remains with the UK Parliament in
Westminster.
The public take part in Parliament in a way that isn't the case at Westminster through Cross Party Groups on policy topics which the interested public join and attend meetings of alongside
Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs).
The resurgence in
Celtic language and identity, as well as 'regional' politics and development, has contributed to forces pulling against the unity of the state. This was clearly demonstrated when- although some argue it was influenced by general public dillusionment with Labour- the
Scottish National Party became the largest party in the Scottish Parliament by one seat. Alex Salmond (leader of SNP) has since made history by becoming the first First Minister of Scotland from a party other than Labour. The SNP rule as a minority government at Holyrood. Nevertheless, recent opinion polls have suggested that nationalism (for example a desire to break up the UK) is rising within Scotland and England. However, the polls have been known to be inaccurate in the past (for example, in the run up to the
1992 General Election). Moreover, polls carried out in the 1970s and the 1990s showed similar results, only to be debunked at elections. While support for breaking up the UK was strongest in Scotland, there was still a clear lead for unionism over nationalism. However, an opinion poll in April 2008 suggested the result of any referendum on Scottish independence could be close as support for independence had reached 41% with just 40% supporting retention of the Union.
Wales
The
National Assembly for Wales is a
devolved assembly with power to make legislation in
Wales, and is also responsible for
Welsh Assembly Government departments in Wales. The Assembly was formed under the
Government of Wales Act 1998, by the
Labour government, after a
referendum in 1997 (also supported by
Plaid Cymru and the
Liberal Democrats) approved its creation.
There is now a legal separation of the legislative and executive functions of the National Assembly, since the passing of the
Government of Wales Act 2006. The Act created a separate executive called the "
Welsh Assembly Government" which performs the day to day running of government affairs and contains members of the highest elected party of the Assembly chamber. The act also made the National Assembly for Wales a separate entity from the Welsh Assembly Government, and this entity scrutinizes the government in power. The "
Assembly Commission" was also created to ensure the smooth running of resources and gathering of accurate facts for the Assembly to deal with.
As of the passing of the
Government of Wales Act 2006, the National Assembly for Wales now has its own legislative powers known as
Assembly Measures. Each Assembly Measure derives its power from a
Legislative Competency Order which has to be passed by the Assembly and two
Houses of Parliament. Before the 2006 Act, the Assembly didn't have such legislative power and only had the right to develop Subordinate legislation off primary legislation made by the UK Parliament.
Elections and parties
Unlike many
European nations, the United Kingdom uses a
first-past-the-post system to elect members of Parliament. Therefore, elections and political parties in the United Kingdom are affected by
Duverger's Law, which causes the agglomeration of related political ideologies into a few large parties with many small parties rarely winning representation.
Historically, the United Kingdom had two major political parties, though currently three parties dominate the political landscape. Originally, the
Conservatives and the
Liberals dominated British politics, but the Liberal Party collapsed in the early twentieth century and was largely replaced by the
Labour Party. In the 1980s, the Liberals merged with the
Social Democratic Party and, as the
Liberal Democrats, are viewed as the third major party. Other parties, often called minor parties (in UK terms at least) contest elections but few except those which are based in single countries of the United Kingdom win seats in Parliament. The
Scottish National Party has had MPs continuously since 1967, and
Plaid Cymru, the Welsh nationalists, has had MPs continuously since 1974. All 18 MPs elected from Northern Ireland are from parties that just contest elections in Northern Ireland (or in the case of Sinn Féin, the island of Ireland.)
In the most recent
general election in 2005, the Labour Party won re-election on a reduced majority, with both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats making gains.
Electoral systems
Various electoral systems are used in the UK:
In the last few general elections, voter mandates for Westminster in the 40% ranges have been swung into 60% parliamentary majorities. No government has won a majority of the popular vote since the
National Government of
Stanley Baldwin in
1935. Twice since
World War II (in
1951 and
February 1974) the party with fewer popular votes actually came out with the larger number of seats. One reason for all the quirks is that Britain has many political parties, making it possible to win individual constituencies on less than 50% of the vote due to the opposition votes being divided.
Electoral reform has been considered for
general elections many times, but after the
Jenkins Commission report in October 1998, which suggested the
Alternative vote top-up for
general elections was effectively ignored by the government, there have been no further government proposals for reform. It is highly unlikely that electoral reform will happen unless there's a significant change in the balance of power and
Labour loses its large majority.
Low turnout is a concern, as the percentage of the electorate who voted in the
last general election was just 61%.
History of political parties
UK political parties originated in 1662 in the aftermath of the
English Civil War, with the creation of the Court Party and the Country Party.
Conservatives (Tories)
The Country Party soon became known as the
Tories (now the Conservative party, still commonly referred to as "the Tories") and the
Whigs. The two remained the main political parties until the 20th century.
The term "Tory" originates from the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678-1681 - the Whigs were those who supported the exclusion of the Roman Catholic
Duke of York from the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland, and the Tories were those who opposed it. Both names were originally insults: a "whiggamor" was a cattle driver, and a "tory" was an
Irish term for an outlaw.
Generally, the Tories were associated with lesser gentry and the Church of England, while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, larger land holders (or "land magnates"), expansion and tolerance. Both were still committed to the political system in place at that time. Neither group could be considered a true political party in the modern sense.
The Rochdale
Radicals were a group of more extreme reformists who were also heavily involved in the
cooperative movement. They sought to bring about a more equal society, and are considered by modern standards to be left-wing.
After becoming associated with repression of popular discontent in the years after 1815, the Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of
Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his
1834 "
Tamworth Manifesto" outlined a new "Conservative" philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good.
Though Peel's supporters subsequently split from their colleagues over the issue of free trade in 1846, ultimately joining the Whigs and the
Radicals to form what would become the
Liberal Party, Peel's version of the party's underlying outlook was retained by the remaining Tories, who adopted his label of Conservative as the official name of their party.
The term '
Liberal Party' was first used officially in 1868, though it had been in use colloquially for decades beforehand. The Liberal Party formed a government in 1870 and then alternated with the Conservative Party as the party of government throughout the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The
Irish Parliamentary Party was set up to replace the
Home Rule League in 1882. It remained the third-largest party in British politics until 1918, often holding the
balance of power.
Labour
In 1900, the
Labour Representation Committee was established and it changed its name to
The Labour Party in 1906. After the
First World War, this led to the demise of the Liberal Party as the main reformist force in British politics. The existence of the Labour Party on the left of British politics led to a slow waning of energy from the Liberal Party, which has consequently assumed third place in national politics. After performing poorly in the elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, the Liberal Party was superseded by the Labour Party as the party of the left.
History
Following two brief spells in minority governments in 1924 and 1929-1931, the Labour Party had its first true victory after
World War II in the
1945 "
khaki election". Throughout the rest of the twentieth century, Labour governments alternated with Conservative governments. The Conservatives were in power for most of the time, with the Labour Party suffering the "wilderness years" of 1951-1964 (three straight General Election defeats) and 1979-1997 (four straight General Election defeats).
During this second period,
Margaret Thatcher, who became leader of the Conservative party in 1975, made a fundamental change to Conservative policies, turning the Conservative Party into an economic neoliberal party. In the
General Election of 1979 she defeated
James Callaghan's troubled Labour government after the
winter of discontent.
For most of the 1980s and the 1990s, Conservative governments under Thatcher and her successor
John Major pursued policies of
privatization, anti-
trade-unionism, and, for a time,
Monetarism, now known collectively as
Thatcherism.
The Labour Party elected left-winger
Michael Foot as their leader after their 1979 election defeat, and he responded to dissatisfaction with the Labour Party by pursuing a number of radical policies developed by its grass-roots members. In 1981 several right-wing Labour MPs formed a breakaway group called the
Social Democratic Party (SDP), a move which split Labour and is widely believed to have made Labour unelectable for a decade. The SDP formed an alliance with the Liberal Party which contested the
1983 and
1987 general elections as a centrist alternative to Labour and the Conservatives. After some initial success, the SDP didn't prosper (partly due to its unfavourable distribution of votes in the FPTP electoral system), and was accused by some of splitting the anti-Conservative vote.
The SDP eventually merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats in 1988. Support for the new party has increased since then, and the Liberal Democrats (often referred to as LibDems) in 1997 and 2001 gained an increased number of seats in the House of Commons.
The Labour Party was badly defeated in the Conservative landslide of the
1983 general election, and Michael Foot was replaced shortly thereafter by
Neil Kinnock as leader. Kinnock expelled the
far left Militant tendency group and moderated many of the party's policies. Yet he was in turn replaced by
John Smith after Labour defeats in the
1987 and
1992 general elections.
Tony Blair became leader of the Labour party after John Smith's sudden death from a heart attack in 1994. He continued to move the Labour Party back towards the 'centre' by loosening links with the
unions and embracing many of Margaret Thatcher's liberal economic policies. This, coupled with the
professionalising of the party machine's approach to the media, helped Labour win a historic landslide in the
1997 General Election, after 18 years of Conservative government. Some observers say the Labour Party had by then morphed from a
democratic socialist party to a
social democratic party, a process which delivered three general election victories but alienated some of its core base.
Main political parties
Whigs
Tories
Radical Party (UK)
Conservative Party (UK)
Liberal Party (UK)
Irish Parliamentary Party
Labour Party (UK)
Social Democratic Party (UK)
Liberal Democrats
Current political landscape
In the 2005 General Election, Tony Blair's Labour Party won an unprecedented (for Labour) third consecutive term, albeit with a reduced majority.
After the Labour victory senior Conservative figures indicated that their party needed to change both its outlook and, perhaps more importantly, its image. The Conservative Party's legacy of its difficulties in the early- and mid-1990s appeared to have alienated many middle-class voters, and its aging membership (average age 65) also posed problems.
Leader Michael Howard tendered his resignation soon after the election, and his resigning was followed by a review of the leadership election rules and the leadership campaign. The campaign culminated with speeches by the two lead candidates, David Davis and David Cameron, at the 2005 party conference. Following his well received speech David Cameron was elected by the party membership with large majority of votes cast.
The Conservatives under David Cameron have seen their popularity grow, as shown by their success at the Local Elections in May 2006 and May 2007 and opinion polls which have largely, but not always, shown a small lead over Labour since early 2006.(External Link
) These poll leads are their first since the early 1990s.
Conversely, since the 2005 election the Labour Government has suffered from internal power-struggles over when Tony Blair would step down as Prime Minister and party leader, as well as the on-going issue of Iraq. Individual Labour government departments have also come under increasing criticism, especially the Home Office, which is in charge of U.K prisons, as well as the country's immigration and asylum policies. In June 2007 Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair as leader of the Labour party.
Major national issues in current British national politics, in descending order of voter concern (as of MORI poll September 2006), are:
Race relations / immigration
Defence / Terrorism
Law and order
The National Health Service (NHS)
Education
Pollution and the environment
The state of the economy
Housing and house prices
Pensions and benefits
Taxation
There are also specific regional issues, not listed above.
Small parties
Parliamentary parties
The Respect party, a left-wing group that came out of the anti-war movement has one MP, George Galloway, and a small number of seats on local councils across the country.
United Kingdom Independence Party has as of yet not won a single House of Commons seat at an election, but on 22 April 2008 welcomed the defection of Bob Spink MP for Castle Point, to date its only MP. The party also has two Lords in the House of Lords who defected from the Conservative Party and has the third largest British block of MEPs in the European Parliament.
. Two UKIP members were elected to the London Assembly in 2000, but they subsequently quit the party and now sit as One London members.
Non-Parliamentary political parties
The Green Party has seats in the European Parliament and also have two seats in the London Assembly; Veritas has one Member of the European Parliament (MEP), its founder and former leader Robert Kilroy Silk, though he was elected for UKIP (which he later left). The Scottish National Party has formed a minority government in the Scottish Parliament, and Plaid Cymru have seats in the Welsh Assembly, as well as each having a number of council seats. A number of other parties have local councillors including the British National Party (BNP), the Liberal Party (in Liverpool, Peterborough and elsewhere), Mebyon Kernow (Cornish nationalist party) in Cornwall, and the Communist Left Alliance (in Fife).
Regional/National parties
Other political parties contest elections in constituent parts of the United Kingdom, seeking autonomy or independence, for example:
Mebyon Kernow (Sons of Cornwall)
Plaid Cymru - Party of Wales
Scottish Green Party
Scottish National Party (SNP, advocating independent Scottish statehood within the European Union)
Scottish Socialist Party (campaigning for a socialist Scottish republic)
English Democrats (campaigners for a separate English Parliament)
The SNP and Plaid Cymru work as a single parliamentary group in the UK and European parliaments.
Several local parties contest only within a specific area, a single county, borough or district. Examples include the Better Bedford Independent Party, one of the dominant parties in Bedford Borough Council, led by Bedford's current Mayor, Frank Branston. The most notable local party is Health Concern, which controls a single seat in the UK Parliament.
The far-left and far-right
Other minor UK political parties exist, but generally don't succeed in returning MPs to Parliament. There is a tendency on the far left and right for a proliferation of tiny groups (also known by the French term 'groupuscules'), sometimes characterized by extremely rigid ideologies or built around personalities. The largest of these groups probably is the Socialist Workers Party with a few thousand members.
Independents
There are also a few independent politicians with no party allegiance. This normally occurs only when an MP decides to break with his party in mid-session. Since 1950 only two MPs have been elected as genuine independents, though others have been elected after breaking away from their party:
Martin Bell represented the Tatton constituency in Cheshire between 1997 and 2001. He was elected following a "sleaze" scandal involving the sitting Conservative MP, Neil Hamilton -- Bell, a BBC journalist, stood as an anticorruption independent candidate, and the Labour and Liberal Democrat parties withdrew their candidates from the election.
Dr. Richard Taylor MP was elected for the Wyre Forest constituency in the 2001 on a platform opposing the closure of Kidderminster hospital. He later established Health Concern, the party under which he ran in 2005.
Local Government
The UK is divided into a variety of different types of Local Authorities, with different functions and responsibilities.
England has a mix of two-tier and single-tier councils in different parts of the country. In Greater London, a unique two-tier system exists, with power shared between the London borough councils, and the Greater London Authority which is headed by an elected mayor.
Unitary Authorities are used throughout Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
European Union
The United Kingdom is a member of the European Union (EU). As such, UK citizens elect Members of the European Parliament to represent them in the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg. The UK elects 78 MEPs.
In recent years, there have been divisions in both major parties as to whether the UK should form greater ties within the EU, leave things as they are, or reduce the EU's supranational powers. Opponents of greater European integration are known as Eurosceptics, supporters Europhiles. Divisions over Europe run deep in both major parties, and though the Conservative Party is seen to split over this issue, whilst in Government up to 1997 and today in opposition. The Labour Party also faces conflicting views within Cabinet over UK adoption of the euro, and on ratification of the Treaty of Lisbon.
UK nationalists have long campaigned against EU integration. The strong showing of the eurosceptic United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) in the 2004 European Parliament elections has shifted the debate over UK relations with the EU.
British lawmakers rejected calls March 5 2008 to give the public a vote on adopting the Treaty of Lisbon, sealed December 18 2007.
International organization participation
African Development Bank
Asian Development Bank
Australia Group
Bank for International Settlements
Commonwealth of Nations
Caribbean Development Bank (non-regional)
Council of Europe
CERN
Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council
European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (associate)
United Nations Economic Commission for Europe
United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
European Investment Bank
European Space Agency
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific
European Union
Food and Agriculture Organization
G5, G6, G7, G8
G10
Inter-American Development Bank
International Atomic Energy Agency
International Bank for Reconstruction and Development
International Civil Aviation Organization
International Chamber of Commerce
International Criminal Court
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
International Development Association
International Energy Agency
International Fund for Agricultural Development
International Finance Corporation
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
International Hydrographic Organization
International Labour Organization
International Monetary Fund
International Maritime Organization
Inmarsat
International Telecommunications Satellite Organization (Intelsat)
International Criminal Police Organization–Interpol
International Olympic Committee (IOC)
International Organization for Migration (IOM) (observer)
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
International Whaling Commission
MONUC,
Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) (guest)
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG)
Organization of American States OAS) (observer)
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE)
Permanent Court of Arbitration
Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC)
United Nations
United Nations Security Council (permanent member)
United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL)
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
UNESCO
United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)
United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (UNIKOM)
United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH)
United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
United Nations Observer Mission in Georgia (UNOMIG)
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
UNTAET
UNU
Universal Postal Union (UPU)
World Confederation of Labour
World Customs Organization
Western European Union
World Health Organization
World Intellectual Property Organization
World Meteorological Organization
World Trade Organization
Zangger Committee
Further Information
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