7. The main political parties in the uk

The main parties in the UK are the Conservative party (right wing), the Labour party (left wing) and the Liberal Democrats (centre).

The Conservative party goes back to the Tories, who originated in King Charles' reign (1660-1685). The Tories were the party that supported Church and King; the other main party at the time was the Whigs, who were a group that wanted a political reform. In around 1830, the Tory party gave way to the Conservative party.

The Conservative party believes in free enterprise and the importance of a capitalist economy, with private ownership preferred to state control.

In 1899 the Trade Union Congress organized a special conference of trade unions and socialist bodies to make plans to represent labour in Parliament. The proposal for such a meeting had come from Thomas Steels, a member of the Independent Labour Party which had been formed in 1893. The conference met in February 1900 in London and has always been looked on as the foundation of the Labour Party. The Labour party believes that private ownership and enterprise should be allowed to flourish, but not at the expense of their traditional support of the public services.

There has been a Liberal party in Great Britain since 1868 when the name was adopted by the Whig party. The Whig party was created after the revolution of 1688 and aimed to subordinate the power of the Crown to that of Parliament and the upper classes. In 1981 a second centre party was created by 24 Labour MPs. It was called the Social Democratic party, and soon formed an alliance with the Liberal party. They formed a single party which became the Liberal Democrats after the 1987 election. The Liberal Democrats believe that the state should have some control over the economy, but that there should be individual ownership.

There are other political parties within the UK. The Green party offers' economic and industrial policies that relate directly to the environment. The Scottish Nationalist Party wants independence for Scotland within the European Community.

8. How to reduce the violence

Nowadays the number of crimes involving violence is growing in Sweden as well as many other countries. The main cause of this development is undoubtedly the use of drags especially in larger cities. The higher rate of unemployment and growing racism are significant reasons too. Murders and assaults are the frightening results. One can, as a consequence, see how people not only in countries like the United States, but also in countries like Sweden, arm themselves with weapons for protection.

It is often proved that an efficient way to lower the number of acts of violence is to have more severe sentences. However, people who commit these crimes often have serious social and psychological problems. Many of them may therefore be indifferent to how severe the sentences are. Besides, these criminals do not think that they will ever get caught. Because of these reasons I doubt that acts of violence in Sweden would decrease if our government was to make the sentences for this type of crime more severe. A common measure to reduce the acts of violence is to increase the num­ber of policemen patrolling the streets. Although this is a good way of preventing acts of violence, it will not actually stop people from becoming criminals.

I am sure that it is impossible to erase the violence related criminality completely, but there is a way in which I think it can be reduced considerably. Children should be informed about crimes related to violence and drugs. This information should be given in kindergarten as well as in elementary school. Furthermore, it should especially reach those children who live in areas with high crime rates. The information should take the form of a discussion, not a lecture, led by some expert, preferably a local police officer.

The children would then at an early age already have some understanding of these problems that would be valuable to them for the rest of their lives. Although the costs for such a project would be considerable, the benefits would be great. It would certainly prevent many from becoming violent criminals in the future.