P OLITICAL PARTIES OF THE U NITED K INGDOM

Ten political parties are represented in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, with a further two represented in the European Parliament and quite a few more with representation at a local level. As elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom are operated under a 'first past the post system' and elections to the Parliament of the European Union are operated under a proportional representation system, minor parties who have support spread throughout the country, but not enough concentrated support to win an entire constituency, can often find representation in the EU.

C ONSERVATIVE P ARTY Members of Parliament: 307 Members of the European Parliament: 25 Members of the House of Lords: 186 Scottish Parliament: 15 Welsh Assembly: 14

The Conservative Party, officially the "Conservative & Unionist Party", and commonly known as "The Tory Party" is one of the two largest political parties in the United Kingdom. Since World War Two, every Prime Minister has come from the Conservative Party or the Labour Party. Generally standing for lower taxation, a smaller state and lower welfare, the Conservative Party is the traditional right-wing party in the UK. Given that the Conservative Party vehemently opposed almost all of Blair's early manifesto promises and that the party leadership has now accepted many of them (minimum wage, Bank of England independence, civil partnerships, various anti-discrimination laws), the party can be quite fractured at times, with a significant minority being very much opposed to membership of the European Union.

Notable figures include Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher and David Cameron.

L ABOUR P ARTY Members of Parliament: 258 Members of the European Parliament: 13 Members of the House of Lords: 212 Scottish Parliament: 37 Welsh Assembly: 30

The Labour Party is the other main party. Founded as a socialist party, the Labour Party had a huge role in the creation of the Welfare State and the National Health Service. After nearly two decades of Conservative rule, the Labour Party moved much closed to the centre, stepping away from its socialist roots and becoming a much more social democrat party. This step clearly made them an electable opposition, as they won in a massive landslide in 1997, but it's now somewhat unclear exactly what they stand for other than "we're nicer and more left-wing than those bastard Tories".

Notable figures include Clement Attlee, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

L IBERAL D EMOCRATS Members of Parliament: 57 Members of the European Parliament: 12 Members of the House of Lords: 79 Scottish Parliament: 5 Welsh Assembly: 5

The Liberal Democrats are traditionally the third party in the United Kingdom. The Liberal Democrats are hugely popular among students and are often the go-to 'protest vote' of the middle classes. Advocating progressive taxation, nuclear disarmament and electoral reform, the Liberal Democrats saw a large surge in support as they were the only major party to seriously oppose the Iraq War. In a weird twist, they formed a coalition government with the Conservative Party in 2010, with the idea of 'taking the edge' off the Tory spending cuts and making them fairer for the poor. Their complete failure to do this has severely damaged their support among students, public sector workers, all those affected by the budget cuts, and lost them a lot of support at local government level, losing them control of many local councils.

Notable figures include Nick Clegg, Charles Kennedy and former leader Paddy Ashdown.