Topic The British electoral system

The elective House of Commons consists of MPs, each of whom represents an area in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. For the purposes of elections the UK is divided into 650 areas. Called constituencies. Each constituency is represented by one MP in the House of Commons.

Elections are held on the basis of the universal suffrage and secret ballot. All citizens of the UK over the age of 18 have the right to vote. Each elector (voter) has one vote. Voting is not compulsory. There are people who are not allowed to vote: members of the Royal Family, members of House of Lords, people, serving prison sentences and some patients in mental hospitals.

The election campaign lasts about three weeks. On an election day each voter goes to a polling station on his constituency. There he is given a piece of paper on which the names of the candidates and the parties they represent are printed. The voter draws a cross next to the candidate of his choice. When voting has finished, the votes are added up. The election is decided on a simple majority – the candidate with the most votes wins.

The British parliamentary system depends on political parties. There are two main parties – Conservative and Labour.

The party, which wins the majority of seats, forms the Government, and its leader usually becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister chooses about twenty MPs from his party to become the Cabinet of Ministers. The second largest party becomes the official Opposition with its own leader and “Shadow cabinet”.

Topic The Government

Executive power in the UK belongs to the Government, which consists of the Cabinet and other ministers of the Government. It includes about a hundred politicians under the Prime Minister, appointed to their offices, as ministers, by the Queen on his advice. It is a constitutional convention that the Prime Minister should be the head of the party with the largest number of seats in the House of Commons. Ministers may be members of either the House of Commons or the House if Lords.

A modern Government is arranged in about fifteen departments, each with its ministerial head, all of them are members of the House of Commons.

The Cabinet consists of sixteen to twenty-four senior ministers and deals with the main lines of policy, exercises top-level control of the executive and co-ordinates the work and policies of various ministers. The Prime Minister also has the power to call for resignations or dismissals of ministers.

The prestige, access to information, and intimate involvement with the affairs of state which accompany ministerial rank are of great value to the professional politician – and not only as far as his political career is concerned.

The meetings of the Cabinet are usually held at No.10 Downing Street, which is the residence of Prime Minister.

Topic Local Government

Local government in Britain known as “Councils”.

Their job is the organising and providing of local services. They are also responsible for setting the amount of local tax that people must pay and for collecting this tax.

Local councils are elected by people within each town, city, or country area. The people who are elected, known as “councillors”, usually represent one of national political parties, but are often elected because of their policies on local issues rather than the national policies of their party.