31. Political Parties. Electoral system.

Political parties first appeared in Britain at the end of the 17th cen­tury. The Conservative and Liberal Parties are the oldest and until the end of the 19th century they were the only parties elected to the House of Commons. The main British po­litical groupings are the Conservative and Labour Parties and the Party of Liberal Democrats. The Conservative Party is the present ruling party, the Labour Party—the opposition to the Conservative—and the party of Lib­eral Democrats is called 'conserva­tively oriented'. The Social Demo­cratic Party was formed in 1981 and made an alliance (союз) with the Liberal Party in 1988.

There are also some other parties: the Scottish National and Welsh Nationalist⁷ Parties, the Communist Party of Brit­ain and the Communist Party of Great Britain.

Because of the electoral method in use, only two major parties obtain (получают) seats in the House of Commons. People be­longing to smaller political parties join one of the larger parties and work from within to make their influence felt. The exception to this are members of the Scottish National(1934) and Welsh Nationalist Parties(1925), who, because their votes are con­centrated in specific geographical areas, can manage to win seats although their total support is relatively small.

The Conservative Party

The Conservative Party, often called the Tory Party, is one of those, which can trace its roots back to this early period. Today the Tory Party is that of big business, industry, com­merce and landowners. Most of the money needed to run the party comes from large firms and companies. The party repre­sents those who believe in private enterprise as opposed to state-owned undertakings. There is some division within the party itself: the more aristocratic wing and the lower-middle-class group. The Tories are a mixture of the rich and privi­leged—the monopolists and landowners. The Conservative Party is the most powerful and is often called a party of busi­ness directors.

The word 'tory' means an Irish highwayman and was ap­plied to the conservatives by their opponents but later they adopted the name to describe themselves. The Tories opposed the ideas of the French Revolution, Parliamentary Reform and the development of Trade Unionism. They represent colonial policy. In home policy they opposed the tendencies of the Labour Party to nationalize gas, electricity, coal and the railways. Today the Conservative Party can broadly be described as the party of the middle and upper classes.

The Liberal Party

The Conservative Party and the Liberal Party are more than three hundred years old. The Tories called the Liberals 'Whigs'. A 'whig' was a Scottish preacher (проповедник) who could go on for 4 or 5 hours at a time preaching moralising sermons (наставленгия). In the middle of the 19th century the Liberal Party represented the trading and manufacturing classes. Its slogan (лозунг) at that time was 'Civil and Religious Liberty'. William Gladstone headed the first administration (1868—74) and for long periods the Lib­erals had a Parliamentary majority. During the second half of the 19th century many working people looked at the Liberal Party as an alternative to the Conservatives and their policy.

At the end of the 19th century and in the first two decades of the 20th century with the rise of the Labour Party, the Liber­als lost the support of working-class voters. In 1988 the Liberal Party made an alliance with Social Democrats and the Party of Liberal Democrats was formed.

The Labour Party, formed in 1900, was the one which drew away working people's support. It was founded by the Trades Unions, the main aim was to win working class representation in Parliament. When the Labour Government was first elected in 1945 it showed a considerable change in policy from the To­ries.

Since 1924 the Labour Party has been in and out of power five times with the Conservatives forming the government for the rest of the time. The social system has remained unchanged. As a result of divisions within the Labour Party its right-wing members broke away in 1981 to form a new organization, the Social Democratic Party. The latter fought the 1983 and 1987 elections in an alliance with the Liberals, but only a small num­ber of their MPs were elected.

The Party of Social and Liberal Democrats formed in 1988 from the Liberal Party and the Social Democrats is a British political party of the centre. It is the third largest party, but it is quite small.

After 1945 further minority parties were born, such as extremely reactionary, anti-immigrant National Front, and the conservationist Ecology Party.

Electoral system

Parliamentary elections must be held every five years, but the Prime Minister can decide on the exact date within those five years. The minimum voting age is 18, and the voting is taken by secret ballot (тайное голосование).

Britain is divided into 651 parliamentary constituencies. Each constituency is a geographical area: the voters who live in the area select one person to serve as a member of the House of Commons. The simple majority system of voting is used in parliamentary elections. This means that the candidate with the largest number of votes in each constituency is elected, although he or she may not necessarily have received more than half the votes cast. Voting is by secret ballot. The following people may vote: all British citizens over the age of 18; citizens of other Commonwealth countries and the Irish Republic who are resident in Britain. British citizens living abroad may vote. Members of the House of Lords, foreigners, mentally ill people in hospitals, prisoners and convicted people may not vote. The election campaign lasts about three weeks. The election is divided on a simple majority – the candidate with most votes wins. An MP who wins by a small number of votes may have more votes against him than for him. Many people think that it is unfair be­cause the wishes of those who voted for the unsuccessful can­didates are not represented at all. The British parliamentary system depends on political parties. The political parties choose candidates in elections. The party which wins the majority of seats forms the Government and its leader usually becomes Prime Minister. The Prime Minister chooses about 20 MPs from his or her party to become the Cabinet of Ministers. Each minister is responsible for a particular area of the gov­ernment. The second largest party becomes the official opposi­tion with its own leader and 'Shadow cabinet'. Leader of the Opposition is a recognized post in the House of Commons. The official title of the Opposition is Her or His Majesty's Loyal Opposition.