10. Discuss the electoral system. Give an evaluation of the «majority electoral system» existing in Great Britain? Comment on the latest general elections. Change of government in 2007. Reasons.

The House of Commons is the only chamber in the British Parliament which is elected at General Elections. British subjects and citizens can vote provided they are 18 and over, resident in the UK, registered in the annual register of electors and not subject to any disqualifications.

The UK is divided into 659 electoral districts, called constituencies of approximately equal population and each const, elects the member of the House of Commons. No person can be elected except under the name of the party, and there is little chance except as the candidate backed by either the Labor or the Conservative party. In every constituency each of the 2 parties has a local organization, which chooses the candidate, and then helps him to conduct his local campaign, in a British election the candidate who wins the most votes in elected, even if he doesn't get as many as the combined votes of the other candidates. The winner takes it all. This is known as notorious majority electoral system that is often criticized for being unfair to smaller parties that have very little chance to send their candidate to the Commons. It is often argued that the British system of elections is so unfair that it ought to be changed, by the introduction of a form of proportional representation. It aims to give each party a proportion of seats in Parliament corresponding to the proportion of votes it receives at the election. As soon as the results of general elections are known, it is clear which party will form the government. The leader of the majority party becomes Prime Minister and the new House of Commons meets. The chief officer of the House of Commons is the Speaker. He is elected by the House at the beginning of each parliament. His chief function is to preside over the House in the debate. The Speaker must not belong to any party. (G Brown)

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The party which, wins most seats (but not necessarily most votes) at a general election, or which has the support of a majority of the members in the House of Commons, usually forms the government. On occasions when no party succeeds in winning an overall majority of seats, a minority Government or a coalition may be formed. The leader of the majority party is appointed Prime Minster by the Sovereign, and all other ministers are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the Prime Minister. The majority of ministers are members of the Commons, although the Government is represented by some ministers in the Lords Since the late 19 century the Prime Minister has normally been the leader of the party with a majority in the House of Commons. The monarch's role in government is virtually limited to acting on the advice of ministers.

The Prime Minister informs the Queen of the general business of the Government, presides over the Cabinet, and is responsible for the allocation of functions among ministers, recommends to the Queen a number of important appointments. Ministers in charge of Government departments, who are usually in the Cabinet, are known as 'Secretaries of State or 'Ministers'. The Lord Chancellor (the Speaker of the House of Lords) holds a special position, being a minister with departmental functions and also head of the judiciary in England and Wales.

The largest minority party becomes the official opposition with its own leader and its own 'shadow cabinet’ whose members act as spokesmen on the subjects for which government ministers have responsibility. The members of any other party support or oppose the Government according to their party policy being debated at any given time.

The Government has the major share in controlling and arranging the business of the House. As the initiator of policy, it dictates what action it wishes Parliament to take.

A modern British Government consists of over ninety people, of whom about thirty are heads of departments, and the rest are their assistants.

The Cabinet is composed of about 20 ministers and may include departmental and non-departmental ministers. The prime ministers may make changes in the size of their Cabinet and may create new ministries or make other changes.

The Cabinet as such is not recognized by any formal law, and it has no formal powers but only real powers. It takes the effective decisions about what is to be done. Its major functions are: the final determination of policies, the supreme control of government and the coordination of government departments. More and more power is concentrated in the hands of the Cabinet, where the decisive role belongs to the Prime Minster, who in fact determines the general political line of this body. The Cabinet defends and encourages the activity of monopolies and big business, does everything to restrain and suppress the working-class movement.

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The 20th century witnessed an intensive process of decolonization of the British Empire(the last Br. colony Hong Kong was reverted to China in 1997). A tendency to decolonize grew into a desire to form a great family, a special union, for economic, cultural & social reasons. The Commonwealth of Nations, usually known as the Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states, most of which are former British colonies, or dependencies of these colonies (the exceptions being the United Kingdom itself and Mozambique). The Commonwealth is an international organization through which countries with diverse social, political, and-economic backgrounds co¬operate within a framework of common values and goals, outlined in the Singapore Declaration. These include the promotion of democracy, human rights, good governance, the rule of law, individual liberty, free trade and world peace.

Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, recognized by each state, and as such is the symbol of the free association of the organization’s members. This position, however, does not imply political power over Commonwealth member states. In practice, the Queen heads the Commonwealth in a symbolic capacity, and it is the Commonwealth Secretary-General who is the chief executive of the organization. The Commonwealth is not a political union, and does not allow the United Kingdom to exercise any power over the affairs of the organization’s other members.

Every four years the Commonwealth's members celebrate the Commonwealth Games, the world's second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games. The Commonwealth secretariat provides the central organization for consultation & co-operation among member states. Established in London in 1965, headed by the heads of Government & financed by member Governments, the Secretariat is responsible to Commonwealth Governments collectively. The Commonwealth's objectives were first outlined in the 1971 Singapore Declaration, which committed the Commonwealth to the institution of world peace: promotion of the pursuit of equality and opposition to racism; the fight against poverty, ignorance, and disease; and free trade. To these were added opposition to discrimination on the basis of gender, and environmental attainability. These objectives were reinforced by the Harare Declaration in 1991.

The Commonwealth is also useful as an international organization that represents significant cultural and historical links between wealthy first-world countries and poorer nations with diverse social and religious backgrounds.

14. The causes and consequences of the conflicts and divisions in Northern Ireland. The solution of the Northern Ireland issues in 2007. The formation of the Northern Ireland Assembly and of the coalition government in 2007.

The problem of Northern Ireland is closely connected with religion because the Irish people can be divided into 2 religious groups: Catholic and Protestants. At the same time it as clear that the lighting between these 2 groups is closely connected with the colonial past, in 1169 Henry 2 of England started an invasion of Ireland. Although a large part of Ireland came under the control of the invaders, there wasn't much direct control from England during the middle ages. In the 16th century Henry 6 of England quarreled with Rome and declared himself Head of the Anglican Church, which was a protestant church. Ireland remained Catholic, and didn't accept the change. Henry 8 tried to force them to become Anglican. He also punished them by taking most of their land. This policy was continued by Elizabeth I. But the Irish Catholics never gave up their struggle for independence and their rights. At the end of the 18th century there was a mass rising against the English colonizers which was crushed by the English army and in 1801 a forced union was established with Britain. All through the 19th century the «Irish question" remained in the centre of British polities. After a long and bitter struggle the southern part of Ireland finally became a Free State in l921. Ulster where the protestants were in majority remained part of the UK. The Irish Free State declared itself a Republic in 1949 and is known as the Irish republic of Eire. It is completely independent and its capital is Dublin. Northern Ireland had its own Parliament at Stormont in Belfast and government which was responsible for its province’s life. But from the beginning the parliament was in the hands of Protestants while the Catholics didn’t have equal rights with the Protestants. In 1969 .conflict started between these 2 groups and so the British government closed the local parliament and sent in die British army to keep the peace. But there were no peace. On he Catholic side is the Irish Republic Army which wants to achieve a united reland by terrorism and bombings. On the Protestant side there are also secret terrorist organizations.

The Northern Ireland Assembly of 108 members was restored in 1998. Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly were held in November 2003.However many difficulties still exist to make this local parliament a workable body because of the confrontation between the parties representing the Protestant and Catholic communities.

The Northern Ireland Assembly was established as part of the Belfast Agreement and meets in Parliament Buildings. The Assembly is the prime source of authority for all devolved responsibilities and has full legislative and executive authority. Elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly took place on the 7th March 2007 and the Northern Ireland Assembly was restored on the 8^th of May 2007