Difference between revisions of "British politics"

Revision as of 19:15, May 6, 2007

Politics in the United Kingdom takes place within the context of a democratic parliamentary system dominated by three major parties.

Institutions

Parliament

See also Parliament

The cornerstone of the unwritten British constitution is Parliamentary supremacy, or Parliamentary sovereignty.

Britain is one of a small number of nations without a written constitution, and the British legislature, Parliament, is free to legislature 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. 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).

National and regional legislatures

Scotland has its own parliament, headed by a First Minister and elected every four years (the last elections having taken place in May 2007).

Wales too has its own legislature (the National Assembly for Wales), with somewhat more restricted powers than the Scottish Parliament.

Northern Ireland has its own legislature (and executive) too, which operates under a complicated system designed to ensure fairness between the Protestant/pro-UK and Catholic/pro-Irish communities.

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 popular but controversial left-wing politician Ken Livingstone). 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). However, a number of cities, such as London, have powerful mayors with a full executive role.

Parties

The three main 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 recent times, there has been a perception that the main parties are crowding together on the centre groups. 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 Thatcherite supporters).

The Liberal Democrats were opposed to the Iraq War, and have capitalized on Tony Blair's waning popularity to reiterate and strengthen its anti-war position.

Minor parties

The largest "minor" party 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.

There is also a Welsh nationalist party, called Plaid Cymru, or simply Plaid.

Northern Ireland has a number of political parties:

• The Democratic Unionist Party (strongly pro-British/Protestant)
• Sinn Fein (strongly pro-Irish/Catholic)
• The Ulster Unionist Party (moderately pro-British/Protestant)
• The Social Democratic and Labour Party (moderately pro-Irish/Catholic)

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.
• RESPECT is a strongly left-wing, socialist party led by the maverick ex-Labour politician George Galloway.
• The British National Party is generaly 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.