The British Political System
Britain is a constitutional monarchy The monarch is the Head of State The current monarch is Queen Elizabeth the Second But the Monarch has no real powers - the role of the monarch is primarily ceremonial
Government The official name of the British government is Her Majesty’s Government The Head of Government is the Prime Minister While the Prime Minister is NOT the Head of State he has many of the powers that a Head of State would have, i. e. declaring war The present Prime Minister is Gordon Brown
Constitution Unlike most countries, Britain does not have a single document which serves as its constitution Britain’s constitution is uncodefied, which means it cannot be found in any single document
Sources of the British Constitution? The British constitution is drawn from a number of sources, such as: Parliamentary legislation European Union legislation The European Convention on Human Rights Decisions by courts of law Precedents/conventions
Branches of government There are 3 main branches of government: 1) The Legislature, i. e. the Houses of Parliament 2) The Executive, i. e. the Prime Minister and his Cabinet of Ministers 3) The Judiciary, i. e. the courts
Sovereignty In the British politcal system the legislature is sovereign This means that rules over ALL other governmental institutions, i. e. the legislature can pass any laws it wishes
Legislature The legislative branch of the British political system comprises of two chambers which can both be found in the Palace of Westminster: 1) The House of Commons 2) the House of Lords
House of Commons The House of Commons is made up of 646 Members of Parliaments (MPs) Each MP represents an individual constituency, i. e. each represents a different area of Britain The primary function of the House of Commons is debate and pass laws
House of Lords There 746 lords There are three types of lords: 1) Lords Temporal - these are Lords who have been appointed by the government and Hereditary Lords 2) Law Lords - these are lords who are lawyers and judges 3) Lords Spiritual - these are senior members of the Church of England
House of Lords The House of Lords serves a number of functions: 1) To examine legislation 2) To act as the highest passed by the House of Commons and make suggestions for improvements court of appeal in Britain
When are general elections held? There is NO set date for general elections in Britain But the maximum time between general elections is 5 years
Who decides when a general election should be held? The decision to hold a general election is a ROYAL PREROGATIVE This means it is a power held by the monarch, they decide when a general election should be held But in reality, the decision is made by the Prime Minister (REMEMBER THE MONARCH IS JUST A CERMONIAL FIGURE)
General Elections Britain is divided up into 646 constituencies, i. e. districts or areas About 70, 000 people live in each constituency Every British citizen (or Commonwealth or Irish citizens who are resident in the UK) AND are over the age of 18 can vote EXCEPT people who are in prison or with serious mental disabilities
Voting in a General Election Britain uses the First Past the Post electoral system You get a ballot paper with a choice of candidates and you go into a private booth mark an ‘X’ next to the person you want to be your MP. You fold up your ballot paper and put it into a box. This means nobody knows who you voted for The person with the most votes then becomes the MP for your constituency in parliament
Becoming an MP ANYBODY can stand as a candidate in a general election, provided they are: 1) Over 18 years old 2) A British citizen (or Commonwealth or Irish citizen resident in the UK) 3) are able to pay a deposit of £ 500 (about 7000 RMB)
Political Parties You do not have to belong to a political party to be an MP but most MPs belong to one of the main political parties Currently the three biggest parties in Britain in terms of MPs: 1) Labour 2) Conservatives 3) Liberal Democrats
Her Majesty’s Government is formed by the party with the most MPs in the House of Commons The leader of biggest party becomes the Prime Minister and picks senior colleagues to become his ministers Ministers each have a department to look after, e. g. the economy, defence, healthcare, etc
The current Government The Labour Party won the most seats at the last general election so they form the government Their leader is Gordon Brown so he is the Prime Minister He replaced Tony Blair in 2007
The opposition The party with the second most MPs forms the Opposition Their role is to question the government in parliament on what it is doing The second biggest party is currently the Conservative Party Their leader is David Cameron. His official title is Leader of the Opposition.
Adversarial politics • The British Parliament is designed so members of different parties face each other • This leads to what is called adversarial politics, i. e. politicians arguing with each other The most arguments happen during Prime Ministers Questions. This takes place once a wekk and politicians ask the Prime Minister difficult questions about his actions. The Leader of the Opposition gets to ask the most questions.
Devolution The House of Commons and House of Lords are the parliament for the Britain But there also parliaments and assemblies in three parts of Britain: 1) Scotland 2) Wales 3) Northern Ireland
Devolved Parliaments and Assemblies The Scottish Parliament is in Edinburgh The Welsh Assembly is in Cardiff The Northern Ireland Assembly is in Belfast These parliaments have the powers to make laws on issues like healthcare and education BUT not on matters like foreign policy or defence There are DIFFERENT elections to than those used for the Westminster parliament to elect people to the devolved assemblies
Smaller politcal parties There also a number of smaller political parties in Britain The Scottish National Party want Scotland to be a separate country that is completely independent of Britain Plaid Cymru want Wales to be a separate country completely independent of Britain There a many different parties in Northern Ireland - the biggest are the Democratic Unionist Party (who want Norther Ireland to remain part of Britain) and Sinn Fein (who want Northern Ireland to be part of a united Ireland, independent of Britain)
