British Politics for Beginners

[The Super Pope]

There have been a couple of American posters in some threads who are confused about British politics, so:

Parliament is made up of two houses, the Lords and the Commons. The Commons is the main one. Candidates from each party stand for a constituency (area) and are elected to Parliament on First Past the Post in that individual onstituency. National votes don't count.
The elected candidate becomes an MP and goes to Westminster. He may be chosen as a minister if he is skilled/ experienced or loyal enough. At present if he is a member of the Labour paty he would be in the government, if a Conservative he will be in the shadow government.

The main parties are:
Labour(Government, Leader: Gordon Brown) Centre-left
Conservatives "Tories" (Shadow Government, Leader: David Cameron) Centre-right
Liberal Democrats "Lib Dems" (Leader: Sir Menzies 'Ming' Campbell) Centre
British National Party "BNP" (Leader: Nick someone-or-other) Far-right
Green (Leader: I have no idea) Left
United kingdom Independence Party "UKIP" Euro-sceptic
Respect Multi-cultural centrist

The Prime Minister is not directly elected, but is elected as any other MP. He has the powers of the Royal Perogative, but all new legislation must be voted for by both houses of Parliament.

The House of Lords is mostly appointed "life-peers" consisting of former generals, chiefs of police, great sportsmen, businessmen, lawyers ,doctors and those who make donations to the labour party.
There are also law lords, the most senior judges in the country.
There are 92 hereditary peers, who are the remnants of the noble families, but they will be removed before too long. Collectively these are all known as Lords temporal. There are also Lord Spiritual, the most senior bishops in the Church of England.

The public occassionaly get a say in issues when referendums are held

[Eranshahr]

A far right party and a Multi Cultural party are the two of the Main parties of UK? Haha nice mix. there must be many fights in your parliament.
How can Labour be centre left, They seem so right wing to me. I actually thought the Greens were the only Centre-Left party in the UK.

But isn't a Scottish independence party also a large party in the UK?

[The Alcotroll]

The BNP and Respect are hardly 'main parties', but because of the nature of their opinions (and the vociferous nature of their members) they get a disproportionate ammount of air-time.

For the moment, what they think or say means jack-****, and the only people who really matter are the Conservatives and Labour, both fighting over the center-ground while the Lib-Dems (whose very purpose is to be centrist) cower under a table away from the violence.

[removeduser_487563287433]

I assume you mean the Scottish National Party. Not in the UK in general, but in Scotland the SNP holds the Scottish Parliament by one seat.

[Gary88]

main parties is an overstatement, they are notorious but have little to no influence on anything. yes the SNP are a major party, the controling party of the scotish parliament i believe

[Kiljan Arslan]

I do like on thing about british politics that it allows some of the smaller parties to have seats in parliment if we had things alittle more like youy in the US thered probally be at least 3 libertarians in the senate, and one senator for the Green Party, and the Constitutional Party.

[Black Francis]

I am sick of politics in this country (UK). It is all just opportunism and no real "ethos". The parties don't mean anything (well, at least not Labour or Conservative). They are all just pro "Good" and anti "Bad".

[Gary88]

i like politics here. i admit the party lines are becoming blured but its a result of parties actually trying to appeal to what the majority want. besides that i like the system it means that you are actually voting to be represented, when i vote for an MP that means someone from my town/city with my interests at heart is there in the house of commons able to question the PM and vote on matters

[removeduser_487563287433]

Thank god for that. Who the **** wants ideologies? Then you get into rediculous non-politics like the partisanship of the US. I don't want political ideologies, I want good government, and to an extent that means opportunitism, especially in a democracy.

[Kiljan Arslan]

Our Parties in the US have Ideaologies? Well the two major ones don't.

[madscientist22]

I do like on thing about british politics that it allows some of the smaller parties to have seats in parliment if we had things alittle more like youy in the US thered probally be at least 3 libertarians in the senate, and one senator for the Green Party, and the Constitutional Party.

Yeah, I agree, with only 2 people to pick from it's kind of hard to find someone who actually represents you. Most of the time, the vote's based on who the candidate is not in the US. The British Parliament is more like the Indian one would be if it weren't so damn corrupt . Thanks for the post SuperPope, helpful in understanding British politics slightly better.

[Eranshahr]

Thats the thing I like about Sweden, the parties are different from each ohter, The right wing parties are US friendly- wants to join the NATO, and the the Christian democrats which are falling out of Parliemtn ( I am glad for that) and the left wing parties that in my eyes wants everybody to have it good, but giving way to much welfare money and are thinking about the environment.

[Big War Bird]

How do the parties pick who will stand for Parliment in a given constituency?

[finneys13]

I do like on thing about british politics that it allows some of the smaller parties to have seats in parliment if we had things alittle more like youy in the US thered probally be at least 3 libertarians in the senate, and one senator for the Green Party, and the Constitutional Party.

Actually, the first past the post system makes it very hard for any party beyond the big three and SNP/Plaid in Scotland/Wales and the NI parties to make it into parliament, out of 646 seats, only 3 are not from the aforementioned list.

You get a much fairer makeup of parliament with proportional representation, of which there are many forms, the single transferable vote version, used in Ireland, NI and I think Australia, has been proved the fairest of all.

[The Super Pope]

How do the parties pick who will stand for Parliment in a given constituency?

Applicants are party members who appear before a board and are chosen in the same sort of way as a job interview.

[The Super Pope]

Devolution
Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and London have their own mini-parliaments, the Devolved Assemblies. Those elected to the assemblies don't attend Westminster, and there are different parties from those in General Elections
In Northern Ireland the assembly meets at Stormont. The devolved assembly is part of the power-sharing agreement and an attempt to avoid further violence. The voting system is Single transferable Vote (STV). The main parties are:

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) (Leader: Rev. Ian Paisley, Unionist. Linked to UDA)
Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) (Unionist)
Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) (Nationalist)
Sinn Fein (Leader: Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Republican, Linked to the IRA)

The first minister is currnetly Ian Paisley and the second highest post is held by Martin McGuinness

The Scottish Parliament meets at Holyrood. It's voting system is Additional Member System (AMS). It's main parties are:
Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) (Leader: Alex Salmond, Independence party)
Labour (Leader: Jack somone-or-other, Same as Labour Party)
Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) (Indepedence, socialist)
Lib Dems (Same as national equivalent)
Conservative (Same as national equivalent)
Green (Same as national equivalent)

Alex Salmond is currently First Minister but does not have a sufficient majority to push for independence.

The Welsh assembly is elected under the AMS system, it's main parties are:
Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalist)
Labour
Lib dem
Conservative
The First Minister is of Plaid Cymru or Labour, I forget which

The Greater London Assembly is in effect a more powerful city-council. It is elected by AMS. It has the same parties as National Elections

[Freddie]

How on earth are the Liberal Democrats centre? There so far of the political radar they can only be tracked via Hubble space telescope.

[removeduser_487563287433]

How do the parties pick who will stand for Parliment in a given constituency?

There's no formality to it. All the parties have thier local organisations and they just lob someone into the mix. The really important MPs will be sent to safe constituencies. Labour's safest constituencies are in the traditional working class manufacturing districts of the cities of Northern England and Scotland such as Hull, Manchester and Glasgow. The safe Conservative constituencies are suburban and rural areas that are fairly affluent and middle class. Henley on Thames and the good districts of London.

[Shaun]

How on earth are the Liberal Democrats centre? There so far of the political radar they can only be tracked via Hubble space telescope.

Freddie, I hardly think that I would classify the Lib Dems as a far left party; remember this is Britain, our three main parties all share a very similar ideology, there isn't anything radical about them at all.

[removeduser_487563287433]

Freddie, I hardly think that I would classify the Lib Dems as a far left party; remember this is Britain, our three main parties all share a very similar ideology, there isn't anything radical about them at all.

I would say centre left. They're certainly not for nationalisation of industry or trade unions power.