Elections

Complete the following text with the words and expressions from the list.

election campaign; support; polling day; ballot box;

vote; predict; opinion poll; polling station; candidate.

People sometimes try to (a)… the result of an election weeks before it takes place. Several hundred people are asked which party they prefer and their answers are used to guess the result of the coming election. This is called an (b)…. Meanwhile each party conducts its (c) … with meetings, speeches, television commercials, and party members going from door to door encouraging people to (d) … their party. In Britain everyone over 18 is eligible to (e). The place where people go to vote in an election is called a (f) … and the day of the election is often known as (g)… . The voters put their votes in a (h)… and later they are counted. The (i) … with the most votes is then declared the winner.

The Election Timetable

Read the text.

The British government is elected for up to five years, unless it is defeated in Parliament on a major issue. The Prime Minister chooses the date of the next General Election, but does not have to wait until the end of the five years. A time is chosen which will give as much advantage as possible to the political party in power (Other politicians and the newspapers try very hard to guess which date the Prime Minister will choose.

About a month before the election the Prime Minister meets a small group of close advisers to discuss the date which would best suit the party.

The date is announced to the Cabinet. The Prime Minister formally asks the Sovereign to dissolve Parliament.

Once Parliament is dissolved, all MPs are unemployed, but government officers continue to function.

Party manifestos are published and campaigning begins throughout the country, lasting for about three weeks with large-scale press, radio and television coverage.

Voting takes place on Polling Day (usually a Thursday). The results from each constituency are announced as soon as the votes have been counted, usually the same night. The national result is known by the next morning at the latest.

As soon as it is clear that one party has a majority of seats in the House of Commons, its leader is formally invited by the Sovereign to form a government.

Find in the texts the English equivalents for the phrases below.

иметь право голосовать

правящая партия

вопрос первостепенной важности

дать преимущество

сформировать правительство

широкое освещение в прессе

объявить дату выборов

объявить результаты выборов

иметь большинство мест

распустить парламент

потерпеть поражение

Political Parties

Read the text.

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, or Royalists, 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 were the Whigs, who were a group eager for political reform. The Tory party gave way to its successor, the. Conservative party, in around 1830.

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 summoned 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.

Minor parties in the early 1990s included the Scottish Nationalist, Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalist), Ulster Unionist, Social Democratic, Communist, and Green parties. The Liberal party, which provided governments periodically for decades, lost electoral support and merged with dissidents from Labour and the Conservatives to form the Liberal Democrat party. In the general election of 1992, minor parties won 44 seats from the total of 651 in the House of Commons.

The Conservative Party

The Conservative Party is the oldest political party in Great Britain, which evolved as the successor to the Tory party in the 1830s. It is known in full as the Conservative and Unionist party. The party's tenets of conservatism include the continuance of monarchical parliamentary government. Until after the end of World War II in 1945 imperialism was also a major force in British conservatism. For decades Northern Ireland's major political party, the Ulster Unionist Organization, was an integral part of Britain's Conservative party, but that relationship has eroded considerably. The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Association also is related to the larger unit but has a separate existence.

The Conservative party today has three major elements: the National Union, comprising local constituency associations in England and Wales that screen prospective candidates and help get out the vote; the parliamentary party, made up of members of both houses of the British Parliament, including the chief whips; and the party headquarters, comprising a central office, numerous area offices, and a Conservative Research Office. The central office is responsible for maintaining efficiency in the national party organization.

The leader of the party is chosen, through a majority ballot process, by the Conservative Members of Parliament (MPs) and bears responsibility for policy and appointments. When the party is in power, the leader serves as prime minister and selects the cabinet ministers. When in opposition, the leader appoints the so-called shadow cabinet to be prepared for a return to power in the event of victory in a general election. With the expansion of suffrage, the party developed components to attract support from women, through the Primrose League; from youth, through the Young Conservatives; and from trade unionists, through the Tory Workingmen's groups.

The forebears of Conservatives were the Cavaliers of the 17th century and the Tories of the 18th and 19th centuries. The Conservative party was formed from various conservative associations established throughout England following the Reform Bill of 1832. This bill granted more parliamentary seats to industrial areas and lessened voting restrictions, resulting in a broader electorate. To attract these new voters, Sir Robert Peel, then the leader of the Tory party, adopted the name Conservative and broadened the Tory program.

The statesman Benjamin Disraeli further defined the party's liberal conservatism. He rallied landed interests, expanded party organization, and included appeals to trade unionists. The National Union of Conservative and Constitutional Associations was formed in 1867; it grew into the National Union of Conservative and Unionist Associations. Disraeli was instrumental in uniting, in 1872, the National Union and the Conservative central office. Despite his advocacy of social legislation, the Conservatives failed to win the election of 1880. After gaining support from the Liberal Unionist Members of Parliament in 1886, the Conservatives added the term unionist to the formal name of the party. That term has generally been used in Northern Ireland and Scotland.

The Liberal party was the principal opposition to the Conservatives from 1832 until after the end of World War I in 1918. With its national or coalition governments during wartime and depression, the Liberals steadily lost popularity and the Labour party became the second major party in Britain. After two short periods in power, Labour won an overwhelming victory in May 1945. After undergoing a thorough reassessment of organization, policies, and campaign strategy, the Conservatives regained government leadership in the 1950s. Labour governed from 1964 to 1970 and from 1974 to 1979. Despite continued emphasis on private enterprise and the free market, Conservatives generally did not try to abrogate social legislation introduced while Labour held power. During the 1980s, however, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher privatized many industries that had been nationalized by previous Labour governments. Thatcher vigorously pushed for market economy, private enterprise, and reduction of public regulations, as well as for strong ties with the United States. Her domestic policies became increasingly unpopular in 1990; she resigned in November and was succeeded by her protégé, John Major, who then led the party to victory in the parliamentary elections of April 1992.

The Labour Party

Labour Party was organized in its present form in 1906. The party originated in 1900, when the Trades Union Congress at Plymouth adopted a resolution calling for a conference of trade unions, as well as socialistic, cooperative, and other labor bodies, to consider the problem of securing adequate parliamentary representation for labor. The conference, held in 1906, created a committee, known as the Labour Representation Committee, under the secretaryship of the British statesman James Ramsay MacDonald. Its objective was to secure the election of candidates identified with labor interests or to support candidates sympathetic to labor. The committee was composed primarily of representatives of the trade unions, but the Fabian Society and the Independent Labour party were each given one representative on the executive committee. In 1924 Labour formed a short-lived government from January to November. The party regained power in June 1929, but its leaders were absorbed into a coalition government in August 1931. This was followed by a series of governments formed by the Conservative party until the end of World War II.

Party leader Clement Attlee led Labour to a remarkable victory in May 1945. The Labour government immediately undertook a broad program of socialization. The Bank of England, the iron-and-steel industry, railroads, coal mines, and other industries were nationalized; legislation providing for a comprehensive, cradle-to-the-grave social security program was enacted. Most significant of the social programs was the establishment of the National Health Service. The Labour party remained in power following elections in February 1950, with a majority of only 10 seats. Emergence of a left-wing faction within the party weakened Prime Minister Attlee's tenuous control of Parliament. The popular support of Labour declined, enabling the Conservatives to win by a slim margin in the elections of October 1951. The Labour party, headed by Harold Wilson, regained control of the government by a margin of four seats in the elections of October 1964, and expanded its majority to 97 seats in the elections of 1966. Labour lost in 1970 and remained in opposition until March 1974, when a minority government was formed by Wilson. New elections in October gave the party a scant majority.

Wilson resigned both as party leader and prime minister in April 1976 and was succeeded by his foreign secretary, James Callaghan. The Callaghan government lasted until May 1979, when the Conservatives won elections after Labour had lost a no-confidence motion by one vote. In 1980 Callaghan retired as party chief; his successor was Michael Foot, a leader of the party's left wing. The following year, new rules for selection of the leader were adopted at the party conference. Labor unions, rather than local party organizations and Members of Parliament, secured the largest role in the selection process. This change split the party; four of its most respected members withdrew to form a new Social Democratic party. Divided by this defection and internal squabbles, Labour lost resoundingly in the general elections of June 1983. (A decisive British military victory in the Falkland Islands also played a major role in this election.) Foot then resigned the leadership post and was succeeded by Neil Kinnock.

In the late 1980s, with increasing tension within the Conservative government, the fortunes of Labour appeared to be rising, but the 1987 elections did not return the party to power. The replacement of Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in November 1990 by John Major reversed the upturn in Labour popularity, and Kinnock was succeeded by John Smith.

Find in the text the English equivalents of the following expressions

неотъемлемая часть

нести ответственность

избирательное право

ограничения

поддержка, защита

отменять, аннулировать

подвергаться чему-либо

представительство в парламенте

фракция

профсоюз

электорат

коалиционное правительство

уйти с поста

победить с небольшим преимуществом

вводить в действие

выходить (из партии)