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Politics of the United Kingdom

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Politics and government

   Politics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
   take place in the framework of a constitutional monarchy in which the
   Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government. It is a
   pluriform multi-party system with a partial devolution of power in
   Scotland, Wales, and sometimes Northern Ireland. Executive power is
   exercised by the government. Legislative power is vested in both the
   government and the two chambers of Parliament, the House of Commons and
   the House of Lords. The judiciary is independent of the executive and
   the legislature.

   Since the 1920s, the two largest political parties in British politics
   have been the Labour Party and Conservative 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 constitution is uncodified, being
   made up of constitutional conventions, statutes and other elements.

   The head of state, theoretical and nominal source of executive,
   legislative and judicial 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. None-the-less
   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
   (Tony Blair since 2 May 1997). However, the real powers of position of
   the Monarch in the British Constitution should not 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, the Queen could
   decline royal assent, free as she is 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

   Tony Blair, current British prime-minister and leader of the British
   Labour Party.
   Tony Blair, current British prime-minister and leader of the British
   Labour Party.

   The 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 are 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, e.g. 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.

   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 of Whitehall.

Legislative

   Parliament is the centre of the political system in the United Kingdom.
   It is the supreme legislative body (i.e., there is 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

   Parliament meets at the Palace of Westminster
   Parliament meets at the Palace of Westminster

   The UK is divided into parliamentary constituencies of broadly equal
   population (decided by the Boundary Commission), each of which elects a
   Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons. Of the 646 MPs there
   is currently only one who does not 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. It is worth
   noting that a government is not 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.
   Major reform has been partially completed and it is currently a mixture
   of hereditary members, bishops of the Church of England known as Lords
   Spiritual and appointed members (life peers, with no hereditary right
   for their descendants to sit in the House). 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 does not 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.

   The House of Lords is currently also the final court of appeal within
   the United Kingdom, although in practice only a small subset of the
   House of Lords, known as the Law Lords, hears judicial cases. This
   court follows the Crown Courts, Magistrates etc. However, 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 have been replaced by a dedicated "Lord/ Lady
   Speaker", who acts as a permanent presiding officer for the House of
   Lords.

   The highest court of appeal within the UK at present is the House of
   Lords. In practice, only the Law Lords hear cases. After 2009, the
   highest court of appeal will be a new dedicated Supreme Court of the
   United Kingdom.

Devolved powers

   In addition to the House of Commons, Scotland now has its own
   parliament and Wales and Northern Ireland have assemblies.

   Some members of the devolved bodies are elected by a form of
   proportional representation. Although the new devolved governments have
   some legislative and other powers, they do not have the same powers as
   the UK parliament. As devolved systems of government, they have no
   constitutional right to exist and can have their powers broadened,
   narrowed or changed by an Act of the UK Parliament.

   Thus, the United Kingdom is said to have 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 cannot be
   unilaterally abolished by Acts of the central parliament.
   The Scottish Parliament Building in Holyrood, Edinburgh, seat of the
   Scottish Parliament.
   The Scottish Parliament Building in Holyrood, Edinburgh, seat of the
   Scottish Parliament.
   Parliament Buildings in Stormont, Belfast, seat of the Northern Ireland
   Assembly.
   Parliament Buildings in Stormont, Belfast, seat of the Northern Ireland
   Assembly.

   Tendencies to devolution with the wider United Kingdom have had only
   little resonance in England. There is little 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 is 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 resurgence in Celtic language and identity, as well as 'regional'
   politics and development, has contributed to forces pulling against the
   unity of the state. However, there is at present little sign of any
   imminent 'crisis' (at the last General Election, where both the
   Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru saw their percentage of the
   overall vote drop. The SNP did, however, gain two more seats and are
   the second largest party in the Scottish Parliament as well as official
   opposition). Nevertheless, recent opinion polls have suggested that
   nationalism (i.e. 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. In Northern Ireland, 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).

England

   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) cannot vote on matters devolved to the Scottish
   parliament. Indeed, current Home Secretary John Reid, who is an MP for
   a Scottish constituency, runs a department which deals primarily with
   England and Wales. 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 which is currently under suspension. 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. When fully operational, 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 is in suspension, its legislative powers are
   exercised by the UK government, which effectively has power to
   legislate by decree. Laws that would normally be within the competence
   of the Assembly are passed by the UK government in the form of
   Orders-in-Council rather than legislative acts.

Scotland

   The debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
   The debating chamber of the Scottish Parliament.

   The current 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
   Executive 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 is not 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).

Wales

   The Welsh Assembly Building
   The Welsh Assembly Building

   The National Assembly for Wales is a devolved assembly with power to
   make legislation in Wales, and is also responsible for most UK
   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 no legal or constitutional separation of the legislative and
   executive functions of the National Assembly, since it is a single
   corporate entity. Compared with other parliamentary systems, and other
   UK devolved countries, this is highly unusual. In reality there is some
   sort of day to day separation, and the terms "Assembly Government" and
   "Assembly Parliamentary Service" have been used to distinguish between
   the two arms. It is proposed to regularize the separation, and it is
   considered likely that the UK Parliament will pass the necessary
   legislation.

   Although the Assembly is a legislature, it currently does not have
   primary legislative or fiscal powers, as these powers had been reserved
   by Westminster. However, the position is set to change with the passing
   of the Government of Wales Bill in 2006.

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 have recently
   experienced a resurgence as the Liberal Democrats, enough so to again
   be considered a major party. In addition to the three major parties,
   many minor parties contest elections. Of these, few except for regional
   parties such as the Scottish National Party and Democratic Unionist
   Party win seats in Parliament.

   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 at the expense of Labour.

Electoral systems

   Various electoral systems are used in the UK:
     * The First Past the Post system is used for general elections, and
       also for some local government elections in England and Wales
       (previously in Scotland).
     * The Bloc Vote system is also used for some local government
       elections in England and Wales (previously in Scotland).
     * Additional member systems have been in use, since devolution in
       1999, for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and London
       Assembly.
     * The Single Transferable Vote system is used to elect the Northern
       Ireland Assembly, Northern Ireland's local councils, and Northern
       Ireland's members of the European Parliament. It will also be used
       for the next elections to councils in Scotland in 2007.
     * The party list is used for European Parliament elections in Great
       Britain (but not Northern Ireland).
     * The Supplementary Vote is used to elect directly-elected mayors,
       such as the Mayor of London.

   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 is 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,
   soon becoming 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.
   Robert Peel
   Robert Peel

   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.

   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.

   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, right-winger 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 under her successor John Major,
   Conservative governments pursued policies of privatization, anti-
   trade-unionism, and 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. Several right-wing MPs formed a breakaway
   group in 1981, 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
   did not 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-wing 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 governent. 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
   speaches 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
   considerably, as shown by their success at the Local Elections in May
   2006 and opinion polls which have largely shown consistent leads over
   Labour since early 2006. 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 who will succede Tony Blair as Prime
   Minister and party leader, as well as allegations of Political
   corruption in the form of the “ cash for peerages” investigation.
   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.

   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.

Minor parties

Small 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.

Non-Parliamentary political parties

   Two parties have no seats in Parliament, but multiple seats in the
   European Parliament and a number of seats on local councils.
     * Green Party
     * United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP)

   The Greens also have two seats in the London Assembly; UKIP elected two
   members to the London Assembly, but they subsequently quit the party
   and now sit as One London members. 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 and Scottish Socialist Party have seats 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 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 fringe parties

   Other political parties exist, but generally do not 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
   and built around personalities, that are constantly splitting to create
   new groups.

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, which are
   further subdivided in rural areas and some urban areas into parishes.

   Local Authorities are responsible for such matters as administering
   education, public transport, and the management of public spaces. Local
   authorities are often engaged in community politics.

   Parishes have councils too and some are known as city or town councils.
   These councils are either made up of elected parish councilors, or in
   very small parishes, they use direct democracy.

   There are two common systems of local government in the UK: the
   old-style two-tier and newer single-tier system. The older (and far
   more complex) two-tier system consists of District Councils and County
   Councils. The District Councils are responsible for rubbish collection,
   granting planning permission and council housing. County Councils are
   responsible for education, social services, some public transport and
   other local functions.

   Unitary Authorities, which are in use throughout the whole of Scotland,
   Wales and Northern Ireland and in some areas in England, have a single
   tier of local government, and combine District and County Council
   functions into one body.

   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 often share common public safety authorities with
   other neighboring councils. For example, Luton shares services with
   Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire and Milton Keynes (borough) shares
   services with Buckinghamshire.

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 involvement in the Euro
   and the new European Constitution.

   British 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.
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