British politics

British politics mostly revolves around the House of Commons of the parliament of the United Kingdom. Members of Parliament are elected using a 'first past the post' scheme, where the candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins outright. Most Members of Parliament are affiliated to a political party, although they are elected as individuals.

In addition to the House of Commons, Scotland and Wales now have regional parliaments, and Northern Ireland has the Northern Irish Assembly. Although these assemblies have some legislative and other powers, they do not have anywhere near the power of the national parliament.

According to Duverger's Law, a first-past-the-post voting system naturally leads to a two-party system. This certainly seems to be tha case in British parliamentary politics.

The three main parties

There are three main national political parties in the United Kingdom, although it is perhaps worth noting that none of these three main parties currently have a strong following in Northern Ireland They are:

Between them, the three main British political parties have, in one form or another, held power since 1678.

For a long time, the two main parties were the Tories (now the Conservative party) and the Whigs (now the Liberal Democrats).

The term Tory originates from the Exclusion Bill crisis of 1678-1681 - the Whigs were those who supported the exclusion of James VII and II from the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland, and the Tories were those who opposed it. Both names were originally insults: a "whiggamor" was a cattle driver, and a "tory" was an Irish term for an outlaw.

Generally, the Tories were associated with landed wealth and the Church of England, while Whigs were more associated with trade, money, expansion and tolerance. Both were still committed to the political system in place at that time. Neither group could be considered a true political party in the modern sense.

After becoming associated with repression of popular discontent in the years after 1815, the Tories underwent a fundamental transformation under the influence of Robert Peel, himself an industrialist rather than a landowner, who in his 1835 "Tamworth manifesto" outlined a new "Conservative" philosophy of reforming ills while conserving the good.

Though Peel's supporters subsequently split from their colleagues over the issue of free trade in 1846, ultimately joining the Whigs to form what would become the Liberal Party, Peel's version of the party's underlying outlook was retained by the remaining Tories, who adopted his label of Conservative as the official name of their party.

The term "Liberal Party" was first used officially in 1868, though it was used colloquially for decades before-hand.

In the 20th century the Labour Party was established, leading to the demise of the Whig party as the liberal force in British Politics. The existence of the Labour party on the left of British politics led to a slow waning of energy from the Liberal movement, ending with it taking third place in national politics.

After the disastrous elections of 1922, 1923 and 1924, the Liberal party was superseded by the Labour Party as the party of the left, and inheritor of the spirit of the Whig movement.

Apart from two brief spells as minority governments in 1924 and 1929, the Labour Party had its first true victory after the Second World War in the 1945 election.

Throughout the rest of the twentieth century Labour governments alternated with Conservative governments. The Conservatives were in power for most of the time, with the Labour party suffering the "wilderness years" of 1951-1964 (three straight General Election defeats) and 1979-1997 (four straight General Election defeats). During this second period Margaret Thatcher made a fundamental change to Conservative policies, turning the Conservative party into a right-wing radical party.

The Labour Party responded to this by moving further to the left, a move which made the party unelectable for a decade.

In 1981 a breakaway group from the Labour Party, the Social Democratic Party was formed as a centrist alternative to Labour and the Conservatives. It did not prosper, and eventually merged with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats. The support for the new party has increased ever since, and the Liberal Democrats (often referred to as LibDems) in 1997 and 2001 won a record number of seats in the House of Commons.

Tony Blair eventually led a movement within the Labour Party to move the party back towards the centre (his critics would say to the centre-right).

As a result of this, Labour won the 1997 General Election and has since moved further to the centre-right and away from its socialist origins. This has led to the party winning two General Elections in an row - the first time ever for the Labour Party.

This has led to a crisis of confidence in the Conservative Party, which had become complacent with its position as the 'natural party of government'. It is now searching for a new policy direction after the adoption of most of its centre-right agenda by the Labour Party.

British politics and the European Union

The United Kingdom is part of the European Union. In recent years, there have been divisions in both major parties as to whether the UK should form greater ties within the EU, leave things as they are, or leave the EU. A particularly divisive issue is whether the UK should adopt the Euro as its currency.

These divisions are particularly deep in the Conservative Party, where opponents of greater European integrations are known as "Eurosceptics".

The British mainland regional parties

Other, smaller, British political parties are generally regionally based, often advocating independence for their region. They include

Northern Irish politics

Northern Irish politics is particularly complex, due to the history of Northern Ireland, particularly The Troubles.

From the late 1960s until the mid-1990s, Northern Ireland was plagued by civil unrest and terrorism, known as The Troubles.

The current government of Northern Ireland was established as a result of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, properly known as the Belfast Agreement.

The Northern Irish parties are:

The fringe parties

Other fringe political parties exist, but generally do not succeed in returning MPs to Parliament.

Only the main ones are listed here - there is a tendency on the far left and right for a proliferation of tiny groups (also known by the French term 'groupuscules'), usually characterized by extremely rigid ideologies and built around personalities, that are constantly splitting to create new groups.

However, in the European Parliament, the Green Party cannot be regarded as a fringe group.

Trans-national fringe parties:

British-specific fringe parties:

Independents

There are also a few independent politicians with no party allegiance. Currently (as of early 2002) the only independent Member of Parliament is Dr. Richard Taylor MP, who holds the Wyre Forest constituency.