Political parties

The party system is an essential element of the constitution. The present system depends upon the existence of organized political parties, each of which presents its policies to the electorate for approval. The parties are not registered or recognized in law, but in practice most candidates in elections belong to one of the major parties.

There are three major political parties in the British system of politics:

· The Labour Party (often called New Labour) – the centre-Left party currently led by Gordon Brown. The party emerged in the last decade of the 19^th century.

The Labour Party traditionally was in favour of socialist policies such as public ownership of key industries, government intervention in the economy, redistribution of wealth, increased rights for workers and trade unions, and a belief in the welfare state and publicly funded healthcare and education.

Since the mid-1980s party has moved away from its traditional socialists position towards what is often described as “Third way” adopting some Thatcherite and free market policies after losing in four consecutive general elections.

The current national Labour government won a landslide 179 seat majority in the 1997 general election under the leadership of Tony Blair, its first general election victory since October 1974 and the first general election since 1970 in which it had exceeded 40% of the popular vote. In their foreign policy Labourists try to balance the European and Atlantic vectors – to put Britain "at the heart of Europe" whilst attempting to maintain military and diplomatic links to the United States. While in power the party supported the US in their war in Iraq and other conflicts; although presently British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan is widely criticised inside the party as well as outside. Labour government under Tony Blair introduced substantial market-based reforms in the education and health sectors; introduced student tuition fees; sought to reduce certain categories of welfare payments, and introduced tough anti-terrorism and identity card legislation. It also carried out a constitutional reform which involved devolution in Scotland and Wales. Tony Blair's contribution towards assisting the Northern Ireland Peace Process by helping to negotiate the Good Friday Agreement (after 30 years of conflict) was widely recognised. Both Blair's and Brown's governments advocated green policies: reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and an increase in renewable energy use.

· The Conservative Party (frequently called the Tories) – the centre-Right party currently led by David Cameron. The origins of the Conservative Party go back to the 18^th century.

Since the election of David Cameron as leader, party policy has increasingly focused on “social” and “quality of life” issues such as the environment, the simplifying and improvement of government services (most prominently the National Health Service and the Home Office), and schools. The party has taken a stance on fixing what Cameron has called the “broken” British society.

Conservatives opposed devolution to Wales and Scotland in the 1997 referendums, whilst supporting it for Northern Ireland. However, with a Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly now in existence, the Conservatives have pledged not to reverse these reforms. Conservatives are the most Eurosceptic of the three main parties, favouring close ties with the United States and similarly aligned nations such as Canada, Australia and Japan. One concrete economic policy of recent years has been opposition to the European single currency. The Conservative Party have suggested an expansion of the British Army, believing that it is too small for current operations.

· The Liberal Democratic Party (known as the Lib Dems) – the centrist, libertarian party currently led by Menzies Campbell. The Lib Dems was formed in 1988 when the Liberal Party which traced its origins to the 18^th century, merged with Social Democratic Party (formed in 1981).

Promoting social liberalism, Lib Dems seek to minimize state intervention in personal affairs, criticizing it as that of a “nanny state”. Instead the Lib Dems supports the welfare state.

The party supports multilateral foreign policy; they opposed British participation in the War in Iraq and support withdrawal of troops from the country, and are the most pro-EU of the three main parties in the UK. The party has strong environmentalist values – favouring renewable energy and commitments to deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. Since their foundation, Lib Dems have advocated electoral reform to use proportional representation (a system which would increase their number of seats dramatically), replacing the House of Lords with an elected chamber, and cutting government departments.

In addition to these three main parties, there are some smaller UK parties (Democratic Unionist (9), Respect – The Unity Coalition (1), Social Democratic & Labour Party (3), Health Concern (1), and some parties which operate specifically in Scotland(the Scottish National Party founded in 1934), Wales(Plaid Cymru founded in 1925) andNorthern Ireland(the Ulster Unionist Party formed in the early part of the 20^th century; the Democratic Unionist Party founded in 1971; the Social Democratic and Labour Party founded in 1970; Sinn Fein).

Each political party chooses its leader in a different way, but all involve all the Members of Parliament of the party and all the individual members of that party. The leader of the political party with the largest number of members in the House of Commons becomes the Prime Minster (formally at the invitation of the monarch).

In the British political system, there is a broad consensus between the major parties on:

· the rule of law;

· the free market economy;

· the national health service;

· UK membership of European Union and NATO.

The main differences between the political parties concern:

· how to tackle poverty and inequality;

· the levels and forms of taxation;

· the extent of state intervention in the economy;

· the balance between collective rights and individual rights.

· devolution of power

Date: 2014-12-29; view: 1306