Mouse of Commons; constituents; campaigns; stand for election; constituencies turn-out; general Election; polling stations
III.2. THE CONSTITUTION
Britain is a constitutional monarchy (which doesn't have a written constitution). That means it is a country governed by a king or queen who accepts the advice of parliament. It is also a parliamentary democracy. That is, it is a country whose government is controlled by a parliament, which has been elected by the people. In other words, the basic system is not so different from anywhere else in Europe. But Britain is almost alone among modern states that don’t have a constitution at all. Of course, there are rules, regulations, principles and procedures for the running of the country. But there is no single written document, which can be appealed to as the highest law of the land.
Instead, the principles and procedures, by which the country is governed and from which people's rights are derived, come from a number of different sources. They have been built up, bit by bit, over the centuries. Some of them are written down in laws agreed by Parliament, some of them have been spoken and then written down (judgments made in a court) and some of them have never been written down at all. For example, there is no written law in Britain that says anything about who can be the Prime Minister or what powers of the Prime Minister are, even though He dr she is probably the most powerful person in the country. But there is a possibility that Britain will finally get a written constitution. An unwritten constitution works very well in a society where everybody belongs to the same culture. However, Biritain is now multicultural. This means that some sections of society can sometimes hold radically different ideas about some things. The caese of Salman Rushdie is an excellent example of this situation. Salman Rushdie is a British citizen from a Muslim background, and a respec:ted writer. In early 1989, his book The Satanic Verses’ was published. Many Muslims in Britain were extremely angry about the book’s publication. They regarded it as a terrible insult to Islam. They demanded thaet the book be banned and that the author be taken to court for blasphemy (using language to insult God). To do either of these things would have meant to go against the long-established tradition of free speech and freedom of religious views. In any case, there is nothing in British law to justify doing either. There are censorship laws, but they relate only to obscenity and national security. There is a law against blasphemy, but it refers only to the Christian religion.
Questions
1. Speak about the main principles and the main characteristic of the British Constitution.
• What is the British Constitution based on?
2. Why does Britain not have a written constitution? Does it need one?
III.3. PARLIAMENT
The constitutional safeguard of the separation of powers includes the Legislature(the two Houses of Parliament), which makes laws, the Executive(the Government), which puts laws into effect, and the Judiciary,which decides on cases arising out of the laws.
In Great Britain this separation of powers is only theoretical.
The LEGISLATUREis presented by Parliament, which is the supreme legislative authority and consists of three separate elements: the Sovereign, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
The activities of Parliament in Britain are more or less the same as those of the Parliament in any western democracy. It makes new laws, gives authority for the government to raise and spend money, keeps a close eye on government activities and discusses these activities.
The British Parliament works in a large building called the Palace of Westminster (popularly known as the Houses of Parliament).
The British Parliament is divided into two 'houses', and its members belong to one or other of them, although only members of the Commons are normally known as MPs. The British Parliament works in a large building called the Palace of Westminster (popularly known as the Houses of Parliament).
THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.The Commons is by far the more important of the two houses. The House of Commons plays the major part in lawmaking. It consists of 650 elected members of Parliament (MPs), each representing an area in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The House of Commons is presided over by the Speaker.
The design and layout of the interior of the House of Commons differ from those of the Parliament buildings in most otter countries. These differences can tell us a lot about what is distinctive about the British Parliament.
First, notice the seating arrangements. There are just two rows of benches facing each other. On the left there are the government benches, where the MPs of the governing party sit. On the right are the Opposition benches. According to where they sit, MPs are seen to either 'for' the government (supporting it) or against it. This physcal division is emphasized by the table on the floor of the House between the two rows of benches. The Speaker's Chair, which is raised some way of the floor, is also here. So the arrangement of the benches in the House suggests a two-party system.
At the end of every debate the Speaker asks the House to vote on the motion that has been debated. If there is disagreement, there is a 'division' and Members vote by walking through the corridors called 'Lobbies’, being counted as they do so. The names of Members voting are recorded and published. The 'Aye' (yes) Lobby runs down one side of the Chamber, the 'No' Lobby - down the other side. Six minutes after the beginning of the division the doors leading into the Lobbies are locked.
FRONTBENCHERS AND BACKBENCHERS.Although MPs do not have their own personal seats in the Commons, there are two seating areas reserved for particular MPs. These areas are the front benches on either side of the House. These benches are where the leading members of the governing party (i. e. ^Ministers) and the leading members of the main opposition part (Her Majesty Loyal Opposition) sit. These people are thus known as 'frontbenchers'. MPs, wlio do npt hold a government post or a post in the Shadow Cabinet, are known as 'backbenchers'.
THE HOUSE OF LORDS.The House of Lords, whiich is presided over by the Lord Speaker (formerly known as Lord Chancellor), is probably the only upper House in the democratic world whose members are not elected. It is made up of the Lords Spiritual and the Lords Temporal; the former consist of the representatives of the Church of England (the Archbishops of York and Canterbury and 255 bishops); the latter comprise all hereditary and life peers (life peers, named by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister, do not pa:ss on their title when they die).
The life peerage system has established itself a:s a means of finding a place in public life for distinguished retired politiicians. (Four of the last five Prime Ministers, as well as about 300 past ministers and other respected politicians, have accepted the offer of a life peerage).
There are also Law Lords, the twenty or so senior judges in the land. By tradition, the House of Lords is the final court of appeal in the country. In fact, however, when the Lords act in the role, it is only the Law Lords who vote on the matter.
HOW A BILL BECOMES A LAW
Most bills begin life in the House of Commons, where they go through a number of stages. Then a bill is sent to the House of Lords, where it goes through the same stages. (If the Lords make new amendments, the Commons will consider these).
After both Houses have reached agreement, the bill receives the royal assent and becomes an Act of Parliament, which can be applied as a part of law. The House of Lords can delay a bill from becoming a law for a maximum of 12 months, and then it becomes a law anyway.
This rule has a precedent. In 1910 the Liberal Government proposed heavy taxes on the rich. The House of Lords rejected the proposal, in response the House of Commons passed the tax proposal again as well as a bill limiting the power of the Lords. Again, the Lords rejected both bills. It was a constitutional crisis. To avoid a revolution, the King let it be known that if the Lords rejected the same bills again, he would appoint hundreds of new peers who would vote for the bills. So In 1911 the Lords agreed to both bills. A bill agreed in the Commons could become law without the agreement of the Lords (first - for three years in a row, then his period of time was reduced, and finally it amounted to 12 months).
Questions
1. In what sense could the British attitude to politics be described as “happily cynical"? Are people equally cynical in your country? Are they as happy about it?
2. In most Parliaments in the western countries, the place where representatives debate is in the form of a semi-circle. But in Britain, there are two sets of rows facing each other. Why is the British Parliament different in this respect?
3. How does the role of political parties in Britain differ from their role in your country?
4. Assignments:
5. Complete the following text with the words and expressions from the box:
| The House of Commons | Prime Minister | Benches | Foreign Secretary |
| Cabinet | Ministers | Budget | Shadow Cabinet |
| Backbenches | Debates | Speaker | Home Secretary |
| Front bench | Leader of the Opposition | Opposition | Chancello' of the Exchequer |
6.
7. This is the House of Commons, where Members of Parliament take
8. their seats on the green leather (a) according to their party and
9. position. One of them is chosen to be the (b) , who acts as a
10. kind of chairman of the (c) which takes place in the House.. In
11. front of him on his right sit the MPs of the biggest party, which forms the Government, and facing them sit the MPs of the parties who oppose
12. them, the (d) . The leaders of these two groups sit at the front
13. on each side. MPs without special positions in .their parties sit behind
14. their leaders at the back. They are called (e) . The Leader of the
15. Government, the (f)__________________ , sits on the government (g) , of
16. course, next to his or her (h) . The most important of these
17. form the (i) . The minister responsible for relations with other
18. countries is called the (j) . The one responsible for'law and
19. security is called the (k) . The one who deals with financial
20. matters and prepares the annual (I) speech on the economic
21. state pf the country is called the (m) . Opposite this group sits
22. the (n) (the main person in the largest party opposing the
23. government) and the (o) , each member of which specializes
24. in a particular area of government.
25. III.4. THE GOVERNMENT
26. The leader of the party, which obtains a majority of seats in a general election, is named Prime Minister and is formally asked by the Sovereign to recommend a group of ministers to form a Gowernment.
27. The position of a British Prime Minister (PM) is in diresct contrast to that of the monarch. Although the Queen appears to have> a great deal of power, in reality, she has very little. The PM, on the* other hand, appears not to have much power but, in reality, has a very great deal Indeed.
A number of ministers are invited by the PM to attend regular meetings to discuss policy and this group of ministers is known as the Cabinet. The Cabinet consists of the 16 to 24 senior ministers. The Cabinet meets about once a week in No. 10 Downing Street and takes decisions about new policies and the running of the various government departments. Discussion in the Cabinet is very brief and the Cabinet never votes - the Prime Minister’s decision is final. Responsibility, on the other hand, is collective. This means that, if the Prime Minister resigns, the whole Cabinet resigns, too.
Cabinet ministers are heads of the departments. Most heads of government departments have the title ‘Secretary of State’ (as in, for example, ‘Secretary of State for the Environment’).
‘The Foreign Secretary’ is the minister of Foreign and Commonwealth office. The Home Secretary' is in charge of the Home Office. Another important person is the 'Chancellor of the Exchequer', who is the head of the Treasury. His residence is next to Prime Minister’s: 11, Downing Street.
The work of government is carried out through the various government departments, (the Civil Service), each directly or indirectly responsible to a minister. Each department has a large staff of professional civil servants who do most of the work of running the department on the minister’s behalf. The Civil Service is politically neutral; a change of government does not involve a change in the civil servants staffing a department.
'Whitehall' is the symbol of the British government. It is the name of the street in London, which runs from Trafalgar Square to the Houses of Parliament. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Ministry of Defence are both located here. The phrase 'the opinion of Whitehall’ refers not only to the opinions of government ministers but also to the opinions of senior civil servants.
28. LOCAL GOVERNMENT
The system of local government is very similar to the system of national government. There are elected representatives, called councilors. They meet in a council chamber in the Town Hall or County Hall, where they make policy, which is implemented by local government officers.
The country is divided into counties and regions. There are 47 counties in England and Wales, 26 ones in Northern Ireland, and
10 regions in Scotland. They are responsible for a number Df matters at local level: collection of council tax, education, social sevices, roads and safety, etc.
The story of the Greater London Council (GLC) is ar example of the struggle for power between central and local government. In the early ?1980s Britain had a right-wing Conservative government, but the left-wing Labour party in London won the local election and gained control of the GLC. The Labour controlled GLC then introduced many measures, which the national government did not like (i.e. it reduced fares on London buses and increased local taxes to pay for this). The government decided to abolish the GLC. The powers of tha GLC were either given to the 32 boroughs of London or to special committees. Nowadays, London is the only major city in the western world, which does not have its own governmental authority.
Greater London is divided into 16 boroughs. (Boroughs were originally towns that had grown large and important enough to be*given their own government, free of control by the county).
Still smaller units of local government are parishes for England, and communities for Scotland and Wales. Parishes were originally villages centered on a local church. They have no legal powers but are recognized as neighborhood or village-level forums of discussion.
Questions
1. Do you think the theory of collective responsibility is a good one? Does it exist in your country?
2. What would be the equivalent titles in your country for: Chancellor, Home Secretary, and Foreign Secretary?
3. A British Prime Minister has no status in law, which puts him or her above politicians. So why are modern British PMs so powerful?
4. How does the relationship between central and locaj government in Britain compare with that in your country?
5. Local government in Britain is responsible for most of the things that affect people in everyday life. So why do you thiink so few people bother to vote in local elections in Britain?
III.5. POLITICAL PAKTIES
The Public Attitude to Politics
Politicians in Britain do not have a good reputation. To describe someone who is not a professional politician as 'a politician’ is to criticize him or her, suggesting a lack of trustworthiness. It is not that people hete their politicians. They just regard them with a high degree of suspicion. They do not expect them to be corrupt or to use their position to amass personal wealth, but they do expect them to be frequently dishonest. People are not really shocked when the government is caught lying. On the other hand, they would be very shocked indeed if it was discovered that the government was doing anything illegal. (‘Spitting Image’ was an example of television satire. It was a programme, which showed puppets of. well-known public figures speaking in fictional situation in order to make fun of them. The ‘Spitting Image' format was copied in other European countries.)
As a result of the electoral system two parties have usually been predominant in Britain, at different times Tories and Whigs, Conservatives and Liberals, and since the 1930s Conservatives and Labour, with one party normally obtaining a majority of seats in the House of Commons and the other having its role limited to criticizing Government policy.
The Labour Party
The Labour party was formed at the beginning of the 20th century from an alliance of trade unionists and intellectuals. It formed the first government in 1923. It can be considered as left of the center. Traditionally it stands for equality, for the weaker people in society, and for more government involvement in the economy. It is concerned to provide full social services and that is why tends to increase income tax.
After so many years in opposition the landslide victory in 1997 by the Labour Party was so overwhelming that it shocked everyone, Including Labour and its leader, Tony Blair. Mr. Blair managed to reform the Labour Party’s image and structure. Unofficially he renamed it “New Labour”. Why ‘new’? Originally formed as Party that gives much real power to trade unions and ordinary members including working class the Party was committed to socialist policies like planned economy and nationalization. When Labour came to power in 1945 they on the one hand nationalized the railways, the coal, steel shipbuilding, gas and electricity industries. On the other hand, they introduced the welfare itate: insurance against unemployment, sickness and old age, a weekly benefit for minimum needs, and free medical health care for everyone.
The middle class of Great Britain that makes up the majority of the electorate always treated this Labour tendency to plannee economy and nationalization with cautiop. The new policy of Labour implied no radical change (and it appealed to the British middle class.) What Labour wanted was to improve education, to give more independence to Sd'otland and Wales and reform the election system.
Labour threw off some of its less popular traditional characteristics. It tried to dispel the idea that it intended to return to the nationalization of major industries, more use of market forces and less central control. In addition, although traditionally suspicious of Britain’s membership of the European Community, from 1987 Labour openly supported full participation as essential to the country’s political and economic future.
The Labour Party was last in government between 1997 and 2010 under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, beginning with a majority of 179, reduced to 167 in 2001 and 66 in 2005. Having won 258 seats in the 2010 general election, Labour is the Official Opposition.
The Conservative Party
The Conservative and Unionist Party, commonly just the Conservative Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House of Commons with 306 seats. It governs in coalition with the Liberal Democrats, with party leader David Cameron as Prime Minister.
It developed from MPs known as the Tories in the early 19th century and is still often known in - formally by that name. Originally, the party of church, aristocracy and landlords, it has always been supported by the rich. It stands for hierarchical authority and minimal government interference in' the economy. It likes to reduce income t;ax, gives high priority to national defence and internal law and order.
Its widely known leader Margaret Thatcher was Prime minister from 1979 till 1990.
The Thatcher Government returned many of thee nationalized industries, such as British Airways, British Gas and Britissh Telecom to the private sector, although other industries such as Britissh Rail, British Coal and the Post Office, are still publicly owned.
Parties in Office
|
The South is the most strongly Conservative region, and it dominates the rest of the country because it is most densely populated. Labour dominates in the North of England, Scotland and Wales. Labour's strongholds have always been the great industrial cities. (Conservative - suburbs, smaller towns, commuter villages.) So Labour- Conservative divide is not only North-South but also city-country.
The Conservatives' concrete economic policy of recent years has been opposition to the European single currency. Anticipating the growing Euroscepticism within his party, John Major negotiated a British opt-out from the single currency in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty, although eeveral members of Major's cabinet were personally supportive of European Monetary Union participation. Following Major's resignation after the 1997 defeat, each of the four subsequent Conservative leaders, including David Cameron, have positioned the party firmly against the adoption of the euro. This policy is broadly popular with the British electorate, although voters typically rank Europe as an issue of low Importance compared to education, healthcare, immigration and crime.
Liberal-Democratic Party
The third Largest Party is the Liberal-Democratic Party, formed in the late 1980s from a union of the Liberals (who developed from the Whigs of the early nineteenth century) and the Social Democrats (a breakaway group of Labour politicians).
Its policies: it is regarded as in the centre or slightly left of centre, the Liberal Democrats are the most pro-European Union of the three main parties in the UK. The party places more emphasis on the environment than other parties, it believes in giving greater powers to local government and in reform of the electoral system. (Liberal Party
was for the last time in office in 1905-1908.) The Literal Democrats support and promote social liberalism, constitutions and electoral reform, progressive taxation and civil liberties. They support multilateral foreign policy and opposed British participation in the War in Iraq.
At the 2010 general election, 57 Liberal Democrat MPs were elected, making them the third largest party in the House of Commons, behind the Conservatives with 307 seats and Labour with 258. The Liberal Democrats formed a coalition government with the Conservatives, with Clegg becoming Deputy Prime Minister and other Liberal Democrats taking up government positions. /
Voters: from all classes, but more from the middle class. Money: private donations.
Nationalist Parties
There are also two large nationalist parties: Plaid Cymru (Welsh National Party) and Scottish National Party (SNP). They want separate parliaments for their countries and many of their members, especially in SNP, are willing to consider total independence from the UK.
In Northern Ireland parties normally represent either the Protestant or the Catholic communities. There is one large comparatively moderate party on each side (the Protestant Ulster Unionists and the Catholic Social Democratic and Labour Party) and one or more other parties of more extreme tiers on each side (i.e. the Protestant Democratic Unionists and the Catholic Sinn Fein).
Other Parties
' There are numerous small parties, such as the Green Party, which is supported by environmentalists.
There is also an extreme right-wing party, which is openly racist, called the British National Party (BNP). It supports the repatriation of colored immigrants and their descendants and dependants.
None of these parties had won a single seat in Pa rliament in the second half of the 20th century. The electoral system in Great Britain makes it possible only for the two parties to be in office, one forms the government, the other opposition.
Assignment:
Complete the following text with the words and expressions from the list, election campaign; support; polling day; balllot box; vote; predict; opinion poll; polling station; candidate.
И •
Щфр1а sometimes try to (a)________ the result of an election weeks it
tlkll place. Several hundred people are asked which party they prefer, (ПО 11*1 air answers are used to guess the result of the coming election.
Till! lacalled an (b)___________ . Meanwhile each party conducts its
(0) _______ with meetings, speeches, television commercials, and party
membersgoing from door to door encouraging people to (d)
_______ their party. In Britain everyone over 18 is eligible to
(a) . The place where people go to vote in an election is called
I (f)___________ and the day of the election is often known as
(SI)_____ __ . The voters put their votes in a (h)__________ and later they
ВГА counted. The (i)_________ with the most votes is then declared the
Winner.
III.6. ELECTIONS
Every British subject over 18 who is resident in Britain has a right lO vote. (Members of the Royal Family and lunatics are not allowed to vote). People vote for any one of the candidates in the constituency in which they are registered. The candidate that obtains the most votes in thnt constituency, irrespective of whether he or she has an overall majority, becomes its Member of Parliament and the other votes are 'wasted'.
Anyone over 21 who is entitled to vote (except for clergymen, civil •ervants, felons and bankrupts) can stand a candidate. Candidates are normally selected by the local party associations, but independent candidates can also stand. Each candidate has to pay a deposit (currently L500), which is returned if a candidate obtains at least 5 % of the total number of votes cast in that constituency.
General elections must be held at least every five years, but the Prime Minister has the right to call elections before the five-year term has expired.
The electoral system in Britain is one-candidate or “first-past-the- post" (an allusion to horse-racing). It means that a party can obtain a few MPs in the Commons, because these votes are distributed evenly among the various constituencies. The system is much criticized by its opponents and there is a possibility of it being replaced by another one, th© system of proportional representation.
The following example shows how ‘the-first-past-the-post’ system works.
At the 1997 election, there were 659 constituencies and 659 MPs were elected. It was called a general election, and of course control of
/
the government depended on it, but in formal terms it was just 659 separate elections going on at the same time.
Here are the results from two constituencies in 1997.
| Parties | Constituencies |
| Conservative Liberal Democrats Labour | Chesterfield Totnes 4,752 19,637 20,330 18,760 26,105 8,796 |
If we add the votes received for each party in these constituencies together, we find that the Liberal Democrats got more' votes than Conservative or Labour. And yet, these two parties each won a seat while the Liberal democrats did not. This is because they were not first in either constituency. It is coming first that matters.
Questions:
1. Who can vote in elections in Britain?
2. How many candidates does a person vote for in a general election?
3. What must a candidate do to be elected?
4. Who may stand as a candidate?
5. What does it mean when you ‘lose your deposit’ in an election?
6. How often are General Elections held?
7. In what ways is political campaigning in your country different from that in Britain as described in this unit?
8. Compare the results of the 1997 general elections in the 2 constituencies of Chesterfield and Totnes with the iresults of the 2010 general elections and say which party/psarties got a seat/seats in Parliament:
| Parties | Constituencies |
| Conservative Liberal Democrats Labour | Chesterfield Totnes 7,214 21,940 17,342 17,013 17,891 3,538 |
a) Put the following words or phrases in their correct place in the pmeaage below.
proportional representation; polling day; by-election;
Member of Parliament; canvassing; eligible; call an election; secret ballot; deposit;
Mouse of Commons; constituents; campaigns; stand for election; constituencies turn-out; general Election; polling stations.