E) Political parties (the Labour Party, the Conservative Party, the Liberal Democrats). The electoral system.
Every five years, British people over the age of 18 can vote in a general election. People vote for the candidate they want in their constituency (region). The candidate who wins becomes the MP in the House of Commons, even if they do not receive more than fifty per cent of the vote. This is called the first past the post system. Under this system, smaller parties have proportionally less representation than their share of the popular vote, as their candidates often do not get enough votes in constituencies to send members to Parliament.
The first past the post electoral system in Britain promotes the two most powerful parties at the expense of the smaller parties. Since the 1920s, the two main parties have been the left-wing Labour Party and the right-wing Conservative Party. The Liberal Democrats, a centre party, are not happy with the current first past the post electoral system. This is because it is a party which does not win many seats in Parliament, but comes second in many constituencies. It would prefer a system of proportional representation, in which the number of MPs is based on the number of people who vote for a party in the whole of the country.
The two-party system has evolved since the 18th century when the conflicting groups within Parliament formed opposing parties known as Tories and Whigs. The Conservative party emerged to defend the interests of big, reactionary landowners, of the cavaliers who supported Charles I in his struggle with Parliament, of the conservative gentry and the clergy of the Church of England. They were called Tories — an insult as the name meant “Irish thief”. The other group consisted of merchants and those landowners linked with commerce and the Scottish Presbyterians who helped then to win in the civil war against the King. The latter had been had been calledWhiggamores, or outlaws, and this name was shortened to Whigs, a term which lasted into the 19th century, but unlike the name Tory, is now obsolete.
Today the Conservative Party is the party of the Right, identified with the idea of economic freedom and mainly with the idea of resistance to change. The aims of the Party are to uphold religion, to maintain defence forces adequate for the preservation of freedom and prevention of war, to provide freedom and opportunity by supporting free enterprise and initiative against socialist system of state-trading and nationalization, to encourage wider spread of ownership of property, to improve standards of life, to promote better health, to give greater educational opportunities. The Conservative party has successfully portrayed itself as the party of patriotism. It gives emphasis to the importance of law and order, and it is highly disciplined, tending no dissent from the leadership publicly. It was the Conservative Party that had Britain’s first woman prime minister and the longest serving British prime minister of the 20th century — Margaret Thatcher.
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The Labour Party was formed in 1900. It was traditionally a socialist party that was closely connected with the trade unions.
The Labour Party is less disciplined but more democratic, with more open disagreements between the leadership and other party members. Labour is the party of social justice, though its emphasis is less on equality than on the achievement of wellbeing and opportunity for all members of society. Traditionally it has been committed to public ownership of major industries (nationalization) and to economic organization. During the 1980s and 1990s it changed and moved towards the political centre, especially after Tony Blair became party leader in 1994. Since then the party has also been known as New Labour. It has now accepted more use of market forces and less central control, it encourages diversity, individual enterprise, decentralised economic organisation. And contrary to its earlier policies now it fully supports Britain’s membership in the European Union as essential to the Country’s political and economic future.
The party of Liberal Democrats was formed in 1988 by a merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party. Its leader is Nick Clegg. It is a social liberal political party. It voices strong support for constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, and civil liberties. At the 2010 general election, 57 Liberal Democrat MPs were elected. They formed the third largest group in the House of Commons.
F) Justice and the law.
The law in the UK is based on tradition. The legal system for England and Wales (there are separate ones for Scotland and Northern Ireland) does not have a criminal or civil code, but is founded upon two basic elements: Acts of Parliament or statute law, and common law which is the outcome of past decisions and practices based upon custom and reason. Common law has slowly built up since Anglo-Saxon times 1,000 years ago, while Parliament has been enacting statutes since the thirteenth century. Almost all criminal law is now set out in Acts of Parliament, while the greater part of civil law still depends upon common law, the weight and guidance of previous similar decision.
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The initial decision to bring a criminal charge normally lies with the police. There are two main types of court for criminal cases: Magistrates’ Courts (or “courts of first instance”), which deal with about 95 per cent of criminal cases, and Crown Courts for more serious offences.
A magistrate is not normally a professional lawyer but a suitable member of the public. It is an unpaid, part-time job. The magistrates (there are usually three of them in the court) decide whether the defendant is guilty of the crime, and they fix the punishment, or sentence. They deal with cases such as driving offences, shoplifting or vandalism, and the maximum sentences they can give are six months in prison or a £5,000 fine.
In the Crown Court the person in charge is a professional judge. The judge decides on the sentence: there are limits for each type of crime, and the maximum penalty for murder is life imprisonment. The judge does not decide whether the defendant is guilty; that is done by a jury of 12 ordinary citizens. The jurors are chosen at random from the population between the ages of 18 and 70, but police officers, lawyers and criminals cannot sit on a jury. The idea is that the public should take part in the judicial system.
It is often said that the English legal system looks very fair in theory, but in practice it is difficult for ordinary people to use. Firstly, it is extremely expensive: a good lawyer costs £200 per hour (however, poor defendants are given free legal aid).
Secondly, it is very formal. The judge and the lawyers wear extraordinary old-fashioned costumes: black robes, high white collars and (most surprisingly) powdered white wigs. Thirdly, lawyers use a lot of legal jargon and many Latin expressions.
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