Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Foreign Secretary

2010-07-26T22:31:48Z

Corporalflashback:

The '''Foreign Secretary''' - in full, '''Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs''' - is the foreign minister of the Government of the [[United Kingdom]]. The post is considered - alongside that of [[Home Secretary]] and [[Chancellor of the Exchequer]] to be one of the three main offices of state below [[Prime Minister]]. Only one person - [[James Callaghan]] - held all three posts and went on to be PM.

The current Foreign Secretary is [[William Hague]].

[[Category:British Politics]]

David Miliband

2010-07-26T22:31:05Z

Corporalflashback: updates!

'''David Miliband''' (b. 1965) was the [[United Kingdom|British]] [[Foreign Secretary|Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs]] until May 2010 and [[Labour Party]] MP for [[South Shields]].

Miliband is the child of Holocaust survivors—and at least 80 members of his Jewish extended family perished. He is the son of [[Marxist]] ideologue Ralph Miliband (1924-1994), he is a staunch atheist<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/2475236/Profile-of-Foreign-Secretary-David-Miliband.html Telegraph profile of David Miliband]</ref>. An intellectual, he graduated from Oxford and MIT.

Miliband emphasized in late 2009 that Britain will continue its presence in [[Afghanistan]] and that the United States and Britain share common goals there. He agrees with the McChrystal report that the situation is serious, and that NATO needs a combined security/economic/political approach. He agrees that on the need to put the Afghans in the lead of security and of political reconciliation, noting it is essential that the Afghan government governs in a clean and not corrupt way because that is vital to retain the confidence of the Afghans as well as the inter-national community.

He wants the crisis regarding Iran and its nuclear program to be resolved with diplomacy. As for Palestine, Miliband promotes a 23-state solution (22 states of the Arab League, including Palestine, and Israel) in which a Palestinian state is developed according to 1967 borders plus or minus land swaps, with a fair settlement of refugees. In his view Jerusalem is the capital of both countries. In return, Israel gets the recognition that it craves and it deserves from the Arab world.<ref> Lally Weymouth, "Iran Has a Very Clear Choice." ''Newsweek'' Oct 5, 2009</ref>

Miliband is strongly supportive of the [[European Union]] as a global economic and military power, eventually incorporating [[Russia]], the [[Middle East]] and [[North Africa]].<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7095657.stm ''EU 'should expand beyond Europe'''] - BBC News, November 15, 2007</ref>

Miliband's younger brother Ed Miliband also served in Gordon Brown's cabinet, as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, making them the brothers to serve together in the British cabinet since World War II. Both the Miliband brothers contend the election for the leadership of the Labour Party

Following [[Tony Blair]]'s resignation in 2008, Miliband was touted as a potential challenger to Gordon Brown for the leadership of the Labour Party. At the time, no challenge arose; however speculation surrounding the party leadership continued to grow.
==Further reading==
* [http://www.momentmag.com/Exclusive/2009/2009-12/200912-David_Miliband.html Michael Goldfarb, "David Miliband" ''Moment'' (Nov/Dec 2009)] profile

==References==
<references />

[[Category:Diplomacy]]
[[Category:British Politics]]
[[Category:British History]]

Talk:British politics

2010-07-09T14:03:36Z

Corporalflashback:

I'm cleaning up this page: it hasn't been updated since the election and still thinks that the Labour Party are in government. I'll do it after my exams on Wednesday, unless someone else does it first.
--[[User:Corporalflashback|Corporalflashback]] 12:51, 26 June 2010 (EDT)

I've updated it, though without going into detail on the coalition. There were errors about Iain Duncan-Smith, he has never been knighted and his first name was spelled incorrectly anyway--[[User:Corporalflashback|Corporalflashback]] 10:03, 9 July 2010 (EDT)

British politics

2010-07-09T14:01:51Z

Corporalflashback:

'''British politics''' take place within the context of a democratic [[parliamentary]] system dominated by three major parties. Currently, there is a coalition government between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats

The political culture of the UK tends to be more liberal than that of the United States, but less so than that of many other European nations. [[File:Brit-history.jpg|thumb|250px]]

==Institutions==
===Parliament===

''See also [[Parliament]]''

The cornerstone of the uncodified British [[constitution]] is ''Parliamentary supremacy'', or ''Parliamentary sovereignty''.

Britain is one of a small number of nations without a codified constitution, and the British legislature, ''Parliament'', is free to legislate however it pleases. In British law, the only authority higher than parliamentary legislation is the law of the [[European Union]], and Britain is subject to EU law only by virtue of the fact that Parliament has chosen to accept it.

Parliament consists of the Queen, the [[House of Lords]] and the [[House of Commons (UK)|House of Commons]]. The Queen today takes no part in active politics (the last time that a monarch refused to ratify a law passed by the Lords and Commons was in 1714). While the House of Lords is considered to be the more prestigious chamber, the Commons is dominant by virtue of the fact that its members are elected rather than appointed. The Lords can only delay rather than veto legislation, though the Commons rarely chooses to push through laws against the Lords' wishes (it has done so only five times since the Lords' absolute veto was removed in 1911).

Reform of the House of Lords is a current political issue in the UK. The House of Commons has resolved to make it more democratic, so that 80% or 100% of its members are elected rather than appointed.

===The Executive===

The British Government operates in the name of the Queen (or the "Crown"), but power lies in practice with the '''Prime Minister''' and his '''Cabinet'''. The British Prime Minister has one of the most powerful roles of any democratic head of government or head of state (though some, like the French President, have similar or more extensive powers).

Contrary to popular opinion, the British Prime Minister can be of any religion - for example, Iian Duncan-Smith, a Catholic, was made leader of the Conservative Party which would have made him Prime Minister had he been elected, yet no British political commentators made any mention of his religion. In addition, [[Margaret Thatcher]] was a Methodist rather than an Anglican. Legislation exists which demands that the Monarch be Anglican; however, advising the monarch on ecclesiastical affairs can fall to any member of the cabinet, and indeed the position is defunct in modern-day Britain. No legislation exists which regulates the religion of the Prime Minister.

== Devolution ==

{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor=cccccc
! Nation/Region || Legislature || Executive || Leader(s)
|-
| '''[[Scotland]]''' || [[Scottish Parliament]] || Scottish Government || First Minister
|-
| '''[[Wales]]''' || National Assembly for Wales || Welsh Assembly Government || First Minister
|-
| '''[[Northern Ireland]]''' || Northern Ireland Assembly || Northern Ireland Executive || First Minister and Deputy First Minister1
|-
| '''[[London|Greater London]]''' || London Assembly|| Mayor of London || Mayor of London
|}


1 Northern Ireland is a dyarchy in which both leaders are regarded as equal.


==Local government==

Each locality in the UK has its own '''local authority''': there are '''councils''' of various sorts, as well as a number of elected '''mayors''' (most notably in London, whose current mayor is the controversial right-wing politician [[Boris Johnson]]). The powers of local authorities have been declining for many years, but it is believed that they are due for a significant revival.

It should be noted that most mayors in Britain are relatively powerless officials who serve as mere figureheads (rather like the Queen), as the power is with the local council, of which the mayor is the leader. However, a number of cities, such as London, have powerful mayors with a full executive role.

==Parties==

The British political spectrum has historically been dominated by the '''[[Labour Party]]''' on the left, the '''[[Conservative Party]]''' on the right, and the '''Liberal Party''' (now the [[Liberal Democrats]]) in the centre between them ("liberal" in British political terminology is often used to mean "centrist" or "moderate", rather than "left-wing"). In theory, these parties represent the three main political ideologies; liberal, conservative and socialist, but recently, there has been a perception that the main parties are crowding together on the centre ground. In the 1990s, Labour moved decisively away from the traditional left (angering many of its more traditionally-minded supporters), to the point where it was perceived by many as being less left-wing than the Liberal Democrats. Since the advent of [[David Cameron]] as its leader in 2005, the Conservative Party has moved away from the territory of the traditional right (in this case too, angering many of its more strongly conservative or [[Thatcherism|Thatcherite]] supporters).

===Labour===
see also [[Labour Party]]

The [[Labour Party]] is currently the opposition party in the UK and in the process of electing a new leader..<ref> It is also the largest party in the Welsh legislature and the second-largest party in the Scottish Parliament.</ref>

Following its defeat by Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives in 1979, the Labour Party adopted a strongly left-wing, socialist program. Following a catastrophic defeat in the 1983 general election, more moderate politicians took charge of Labour and slowly moved it closer to the centre ground of British politics, a process started by [[Neil Kinnock]] in the mid-1980s and carried forward enthusiastically by [[Tony Blair]] after his election as leader in 1994. Many more traditional, left-wing Labour supporters see Tony Blair as an usurper whose policies are too right-wing for comfort. This has been the case in particular following the Iraq War.

Blair's policies were arguably a mixture of left (e.g. higher taxes, higher government spending, greater integration with the European Union, equal rights for gay people) and right (e.g. pro-market reforms in the public services, retention of Lady Thatcher's labour laws, support for the [[War on Terror]] and [[George W. Bush]]'s foreign policies). His successor [[Gordon Brown]], once a close ally of Blair, has spoken out against the idea of the party shifting back to the left

===Conservatives===
* Also See: [[Conservative Party]]
British conservatism has traditionally been a moderate, non-ideological creed: its heroes include such pragmatic figures as [[Edmund Burke]] in the eighteenth century and Sir [[Robert Peel]] and [[Benjamin Disraeli]] in the nineteenth century. These figures contrasted with contemporary conservatives from other European countries such as the French thinker [[Joseph de Maistre]], who were often strong, ideologically-minded supporters of absolute monarchy and Roman Catholicism.

The Conservative Party became more ideologically conservative during the leadership of [[Margaret Thatcher]] (1975-1990). Since Lady Thatcher resigned in 1990s, the strongly conservative element within the party has been more or less eclipsed. It had some influence in the 1990s during the leadership of Sir John Major (1990-1997), but the current Conservative leader, [[David Cameron]], has moved decisively away from "Thatcherism". While this has caused dismay to many Conservative activists, it has greatly increased the popularity and electability of the Conservative Party.

===Liberal Democrats===

The Liberal Democrats (or "Lib Dems") were formed in 1988 by the merger of the old centrist Liberal Party with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). They have long advocated disestablishing the [[Church of England]], and their current leader is [[Nick Clegg]], who has publicly said he is "not an active believer" in God, but claims to be "open-minded" about religion, has married a Catholic and is bringing his children up as Catholics.<ref>''Nick Clegg is a believer in families, not God'' [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3076044.ece Times Online]</ref>

The Liberal Democrats are divided between a relatively left-wing faction (to which the former leaders Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy belong), which has taken positions to the left of the Labour Party on a number of issues, and a more right-wing, pro-[[free market]] faction to which the present leader belongs (several of whose members contributed to a controversial collection of essays published in 2004 called ''The Orange Book''). Despite the range of view on economic issues, the party is consistently liberal, even libertarian, on social issues. The Liberal Democrats are strong advocates of anti-discrimination laws.

=== Scotland ===
The largest party in Scotland is the '''[[Scottish National Party]]''', which is in fact a major force in Scottish politics, being the largest party in the [[Scottish Parliament]]. It advocates independence for Scotland.

=== Wales ===
There is also a Welsh nationalist party, called '''Plaid Cymru''', or simply '''Plaid''', which currently in coalition with Labour has control of the [[Welsh Assembly]].

=== Northern Ireland ===
Northern Ireland has a number of political parties:
* '''[[Democratic Unionist Party]]''' - strongly Unionist
* '''[[Sinn Fein]]''' - strongly Irish-Nationalist ("Republican")
* '''[[Ulster Unionist Party]]''' - moderately Unionist
* '''[[Social Democratic and Labour Party]]''' - moderately Irish-Nationalist

===Minor parties===
There are several other minor British parties worthy of mention:
* The '''[[UK Independence Party]]''' advocates the withdrawal of Britain from the [[European Union]] and other more strongly conservative policies than those supported by the official Conservative Party.
* The '''[[Green Party (UK)|Green Party]]''' campaigns for protection of the environment, decentralisation and social justice.
* '''[[RESPECT Party|Respect]]''' is a strongly left-wing, socialist party led by the maverick ex-Labour politician [[George Galloway]].
* The '''[[British National Party]]''' is generally seen as an extreme right-wing or fascist party. It advocates the repatriation of non-white people from the UK to the countries of their or their families' origin.
*The [[Monster raving loony party|Monster Raving Loony Party]] is a 'joke' party, which however often receives significant numbers of [[protest vote]]s especially in high-profile [[by-election]]s (which may attract a large number, sometimes dozens, of other not entirely serious candidates).

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:British Politics]]
[[Category:British History]]

Talk:British politics

2010-06-26T16:51:49Z

Corporalflashback:

Talk:British politics

2010-06-26T16:51:13Z

Corporalflashback: Created page with 'I'm cleaning up this page: it hasn't been updated since the election and still thinks that the Labour Party are in government. I'll do it after my exams on Wednesday, unless some…'

British politics

2010-06-17T10:38:21Z

Corporalflashback:

'''British politics''' take place within the context of a democratic [[parliamentary]] system dominated by three major parties. Currently, there is a coalition government between the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats

The political culture of the UK tends to be more liberal than that of the United States, but less so than that of many other European nations. [[File:Brit-history.jpg|thumb|250px]]

==Institutions==
===Parliament===

''See also [[Parliament]]''

The cornerstone of the uncodified British [[constitution]] is ''Parliamentary supremacy'', or ''Parliamentary sovereignty''.

Britain is one of a small number of nations without a codified constitution, and the British legislature, ''Parliament'', is free to legislate however it pleases. In British law, the only authority higher than parliamentary legislation is the law of the [[European Union]], and Britain is subject to EU law only by virtue of the fact that Parliament has chosen to accept it.

Parliament consists of the Queen, the [[House of Lords]] and the [[House of Commons (UK)|House of Commons]]. The Queen today takes no part in active politics (the last time that a monarch refused to ratify a law passed by the Lords and Commons was in 1714). While the House of Lords is considered to be the more prestigious chamber, the Commons is dominant by virtue of the fact that its members are elected rather than appointed. The Lords can only delay rather than veto legislation, though the Commons rarely chooses to push through laws against the Lords' wishes (it has done so only five times since the Lords' absolute veto was removed in 1911).

Reform of the House of Lords is a current political issue in the UK. The House of Commons has resolved to make it more democratic, so that 80% or 100% of its members are elected rather than appointed.

===The Executive===

The British Government operates in the name of the Queen (or the "Crown"), but power lies in practice with the '''Prime Minister''' and his '''Cabinet'''. The British Prime Minister has one of the most powerful roles of any democratic head of government or head of state (though some, like the French President, have similar or more extensive powers).

Contrary to popular opinion, the British Prime Minister can be of any religion - for example, Sir Ian Duncan-Smith, a Catholic, was made leader of the Conservative Party which would have made him Prime Minister had he been elected, yet no British political commentators made any mention of his religion. In addition, [[Margaret Thatcher]] was a Methodist rather than an Anglican. Legislation exists which demands that the Monarch be Anglican; however, advising the monarch on ecclesiastical affairs can fall to any member of the cabinet, and indeed the position is defunct in modern-day Britain. No legislation exists which regulates the religion of the Prime Minister.

== Devolution ==

{| class="wikitable"
|- bgcolor=cccccc
! Nation/Region || Legislature || Executive || Leader(s)
|-
| '''[[Scotland]]''' || [[Scottish Parliament]] || Scottish Government || First Minister
|-
| '''[[Wales]]''' || National Assembly for Wales || Welsh Assembly Government || First Minister
|-
| '''[[Northern Ireland]]''' || Northern Ireland Assembly || Northern Ireland Executive || First Minister and Deputy First Minister1
|-
| '''[[London|Greater London]]''' || London Assembly|| Mayor of London || Mayor of London
|}


1 Northern Ireland is a dyarchy in which both leaders are regarded as equal.


==Local government==

Each locality in the UK has its own '''local authority''': there are '''councils''' of various sorts, as well as a number of elected '''mayors''' (most notably in London, whose current mayor is the controversial right-wing politician [[Boris Johnson]]). The powers of local authorities have been declining for many years, but it is believed that they are due for a significant revival.

It should be noted that most mayors in Britain are relatively powerless officials who serve as mere figureheads (rather like the Queen), as the power is with the local council, of which the mayor is the leader. However, a number of cities, such as London, have powerful mayors with a full executive role.

==Parties==

The British political spectrum has historically been dominated by the '''[[Labour Party]]''' on the left, the '''[[Conservative Party]]''' on the right, and the '''Liberal Party''' (now the [[Liberal Democrats]]) in the centre between them ("liberal" in British political terminology is often used to mean "centrist" or "moderate", rather than "left-wing"). In theory, these parties represent the three main political ideologies; liberal, conservative and socialist, but recently, there has been a perception that the main parties are crowding together on the centre ground. In the 1990s, Labour moved decisively away from the traditional left (angering many of its more traditionally-minded supporters), to the point where it was perceived by many as being less left-wing than the Liberal Democrats. Since the advent of [[David Cameron]] as its leader in 2005, the Conservative Party has moved away from the territory of the traditional right (in this case too, angering many of its more strongly conservative or [[Thatcherism|Thatcherite]] supporters).

===Labour===
see also [[Labour Party]]

The [[Labour Party]] is the current party of government in the UK.<ref> It is also the largest party in the Welsh legislature and the second-largest party in the Scottish Parliament.</ref>

Following its defeat by Margaret Thatcher's Conservatives in 1979, the Labour Party adopted a strongly left-wing, socialist program. Following a catastrophic defeat in the 1983 general election, more moderate politicians took charge of Labour and slowly moved it closer to the centre ground of British politics, a process started by [[Neil Kinnock]] in the mid-1980s and carried forward enthusiastically by [[Tony Blair]] after his election as leader in 1994. Many more traditional, left-wing Labour supporters see Tony Blair as an usurper whose policies are too right-wing for comfort. This has been the case in particular following the Iraq War.

Blair's policies were arguably a mixture of left (e.g. higher taxes, higher government spending, greater integration with the European Union, equal rights for gay people) and right (e.g. pro-market reforms in the public services, retention of Lady Thatcher's labour laws, support for the [[War on Terror]] and [[George W. Bush]]'s foreign policies). His successor [[Gordon Brown]], once a close ally of Blair, has spoken out against the idea of the party shifting back to the left

===Conservatives===
* Also See: [[Conservative Party]]
British conservatism has traditionally been a moderate, non-ideological creed: its heroes include such pragmatic figures as [[Edmund Burke]] in the eighteenth century and Sir [[Robert Peel]] and [[Benjamin Disraeli]] in the nineteenth century. These figures contrasted with contemporary conservatives from other European countries such as the French thinker [[Joseph de Maistre]], who were often strong, ideologically-minded supporters of absolute monarchy and Roman Catholicism.

The Conservative Party became more ideologically conservative during the leadership of [[Margaret Thatcher]] (1975-1990). Since Lady Thatcher resigned in 1990s, the strongly conservative element within the party has been more or less eclipsed. It had some influence in the 1990s during the leadership of Sir John Major (1990-1997), but the current Conservative leader, [[David Cameron]], has moved decisively away from "Thatcherism". While this has caused dismay to many Conservative activists, it has greatly increased the popularity and electability of the Conservative Party.

===Liberal Democrats===

The Liberal Democrats (or "Lib Dems") were formed in 1988 by the merger of the old centrist Liberal Party with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP). They have long advocated disestablishing the [[Church of England]], and their current leader is [[Nick Clegg]], who has publicly said he is "not an active believer" in God, but claims to be "open-minded" about religion, has married a Catholic and is bringing his children up as Catholics.<ref>''Nick Clegg is a believer in families, not God'' [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3076044.ece Times Online]</ref>

The Liberal Democrats are divided between a relatively left-wing faction (to which the former leaders Sir Menzies Campbell and Charles Kennedy belong), which has taken positions to the left of the Labour Party on a number of issues, and a more right-wing, pro-[[free market]] faction to which the present leader belongs (several of whose members contributed to a controversial collection of essays published in 2004 called ''The Orange Book''). Despite the range of view on economic issues, the party is consistently liberal, even libertarian, on social issues. The Liberal Democrats are strong advocates of anti-discrimination laws.

=== Scotland ===
The largest party in Scotland is the '''[[Scottish National Party]]''', which is in fact a major force in Scottish politics, being the largest party in the [[Scottish Parliament]]. It advocates independence for Scotland.

=== Wales ===
There is also a Welsh nationalist party, called '''Plaid Cymru''', or simply '''Plaid''', which currently in coalition with Labour has control of the [[Welsh Assembly]].

=== Northern Ireland ===
Northern Ireland has a number of political parties:
* '''[[Democratic Unionist Party]]''' - strongly Unionist
* '''[[Sinn Fein]]''' - strongly Irish-Nationalist ("Republican")
* '''[[Ulster Unionist Party]]''' - moderately Unionist
* '''[[Social Democratic and Labour Party]]''' - moderately Irish-Nationalist

===Minor parties===
There are several other minor British parties worthy of mention:
* The '''[[UK Independence Party]]''' advocates the withdrawal of Britain from the [[European Union]] and other more strongly conservative policies than those supported by the official Conservative Party.
* The '''[[Green Party (UK)|Green Party]]''' campaigns for protection of the environment, decentralisation and social justice.
* '''[[RESPECT Party|Respect]]''' is a strongly left-wing, socialist party led by the maverick ex-Labour politician [[George Galloway]].
* The '''[[British National Party]]''' is generally seen as an extreme right-wing or fascist party. It advocates the repatriation of non-white people from the UK to the countries of their or their families' origin.
*The [[Monster raving loony party|Monster Raving Loony Party]] is a 'joke' party, which however often receives significant numbers of [[protest vote]]s especially in high-profile [[by-election]]s (which may attract a large number, sometimes dozens, of other not entirely serious candidates).

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:British Politics]]
[[Category:British History]]