Politics of the United Kingdom General Elections

Why are they important? General Elections give the people a chance to affect the policies of their country by selecting who will form the Government. The local Member of Parliament (MP) for each constituency can represent the will of the people from that particular geographical area. If an MP, or a party in general, is behaving in a manner contrary to the will of the people, they can be replaced.

When and How Elections Occur After a Government has been in power 5 years an election must be called. - This ensures that a Government or any part of it cannot stay in power without the support of the people. -This time limit can be extended in exceptional circumstances, eg. In a time of war.

When and How Elections Occur(cont’d) An election can be forced by either party. The governing party may force an election at any time, as the Prime Minister can advise the Queen to dissolve Parliament. The Opposition may force an election, but only if it has the support of a majority of the Parliament. To implement this, a vote of confidence must be taken, and if the Government loses, Parliament will be dissolved, and an election held.

When and How Elections Occur(cont’d) A vote of no confidence is thus a very important tool of Parliament, because it affords a way for the Opposition to directly challenge the Government. Once Parliament has been dissolved, by any one of these methods, a general election is held, in which every single constituency in the UK must vote on who will be their MP.

When and How Elections Occur(cont’d) The number of MPs from each political party is counted up, and the party with the most MPs elected forms the new government. The senior MPs in the government are called the Ministers, with the Prime Minister being in charge. Typically, each minister is in charge of a separate area of the government.

When and How Elections Occur(cont’d) The actual voting process is fairly simple: in each constituency, voters are presented with a selection of candidates, one of whom they choose as the best candidate for them. The candidate with the most votes becomes the MP for that area.

The Political Parties Politics in the UK is dominated by the two main parties, the Labour party, and the Conservative party. The Labour and Conservative parties have ideologies resulting from very different origins, but today the practical differences in Government are less than in the past.

The Political Parties: Labour The Labour Party has its origins in the trade union movement. Trade unions emerged as groups of workers who banded together to fight for better working conditions. As individuals, each worker had very little bargaining power against rich business owners, as any single worker could be easily replaced.

The Political Parties: Labour (cont’d) As a group, workers could threaten to stop a business from functioning in order to get better conditions These origins in the working class led the Labour party to be more interested in supporting the workers in the UK, rather than the rich and powerful. The richer members of society were seen as a source of funds to support the poorer.

The Political Parties: Labour (cont’d) A direct upshot of this focus on the less wealthy sections of society was that when in power, the Labour government imposed such measures as: -nationalising industries -setting up public health care -providing social welfare These sorts of publicly funded measures cause higher taxes to be imposed to pay for them.

The Political Parties: Conservatives The conservative party is traditionally seen to be more biased towards promoting the ability of individuals to acquire wealth. Measures to promote business often include measures such as loosening financial regulations and lowering taxes. Related to this is a belief that the public good is better served by privatising industries such as power and water.

The Political Parties: Differences Although the main parties of UK politics promote different ideologies, the practical differences do not always reflect this. At any particular time, a party’s ability to win an election depends on public feelings towards specific issues, so political parties have to be prepared to make changes if the public has indicated a bias to a particular policy, regardless of ideology.

Other Political Issues Apart from general elections, any constituency can have a by-election unconnected to a general election. This just means that for an MP to be replaced, for instance if he or she retires, a new MP can be elected without a general election. The UK is also a member country of the European Union, and as such UK citizens can vote for members of the EU parliament.

Other Political Issues (cont’d) Interestingly, the UK refused to adopt the currency of the European Union, the Euro, despite being a member, as the Government took the position that it would not be an economic benefit. The current ruling party in the UK is the Labour Party, who have won the last three elections.

Other Political Issues (cont’d) The leader of the Labour Party during all three of these elections was Tony Blair, but after scandals involving his handling of the Iraq war, his popularity declined. He retired in 2007, and was replaced by Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister.

Class It is common for contemporary societies to be divided into classes for political or economic analysis, but the UK actually still retains some of the formal trappings of class carried over from ancient times. The formal class distinctions that still exist in UK society tend to emphasise the other more practical distinctions, such as personal wealth.

Class (cont’d) The lower class, or working class, traditionally represents those citizens with so called “blue collar” jobs, meaning lower income workers at mostly manual labour type jobs. The middle class, mostly with professional wage earning jobs, or “white collar” jobs, earn more money, but aren’t necessarily rich. The upper class are difficult to classify in the UK, because there are two possible definitions

Class (cont’d) The very rich and powerful, such as business leaders, could be determined to be the upper class according to economic or political reasons. On the other hand, the aristocracy would be seen as upper class from a more traditional standpoint, almost regardless of their wealth (although most would have valuable assets in the form of property such as ancestral land).

Class (cont’d) Although the UK is considered to be a democratic country, this hereditary aristocracy still wields some real power. The monarch is a hereditary position, and there are still a number of positions (92) in the upper house of the UK parliament – the House of Lords - filled according to title rather than election (although this is being phased out).

Class (cont’d) In practice, these class divisions no longer limit people from the lower classes from moving up, except to positions of royalty.

Race The UK is populated by a number of minorities of a non-European background. The British Empire had a number of colonies in various parts of the world, and many UK citizens have a family background from these places. Like many other countries, the UK has laws designed to prevent discrimination on the basis of race.

Race (cont’d) Historically, racial discrimination was commonplace, and even though officially it is outlawed, problems arising from race related issues still arise, particularly in areas with high densities of a particular background or culture.