Lecture 3.3. Constitution. Elections.

Major parties. Local government.

Plan

1. Constitution

2. Elections

3. Political parties

4. Local government

1. Constitution is a document or a set of documents which set out how the country is to be governed. Britain is said to have an ‘unwritten constitution’ because, although there are many documents, such as the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679, which guaranteed certain basic freedoms for the citizens (it made it illegal to hold a man in prison without trial); a Bill of rights of 1689, which established Parliament as the central body of government (to be more exact, it established the right of the people through their representatives in Parliament, to depose the King and set on the throne whomever they chose); the Great Reform Bill of 1832 (it took away the right to elect MPs from 56 ‘rotten boroughs’, gave the seats to counties or large towns hitherto unrepresented in Parliament, and gave the vote to householders) or the Parliament Act of 1911, which deal with constitutional matters (it limited the power of Lords) and others, there is no single document which sets out the constitutional machinery of Britain, and such written documents as the Great Reform Bill make sense only against the background of the unwritten customs and traditions which have grown up in Britain over the centuries. A new written constitution might deal with all sorts of problems in one go; for example, the future of the House of Lords, the status of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and the problem of the voting system. Now might be a good time to abolish or at least reform the monarchy, which has lost much of its popular support. The question of Britain’s relations with the EU also needs to be resolved.

Also, there is a fundamental point missing from Britain's unwritten constitution - human rights. These rights only exist in a sort of negative form at present: you can do whatever you like if it is not against the law. In the Thatcher era some very basic rights seemed to be under threat; for example, unions were banned at GCHQ, the government's electronic spy centre, and in 1984-5 the police were used as a political force against striking miners. In 1988, a group called Charter 88 started a campaign for a written constitution. But the idea of a written constitution is still rather alien to the British; perhaps it would actually make it harder to reform institutions rather than easier.

2. For electoral purposes the United Kingdom is divided into constituencies, each one of which elects a Member of Parliament to sit in the House of Commons. Today there are 650 seats in the Commons, one seat on average for every 66, 000 electors.

All British citizens may vote, provided they are aged eighteen or over, are registered, and are not disqualified by insanity, membership of the House of Lords or by being sentenced prisoners. Voting is not compulsory, and a general election normally attracts about 75 per cent of the electorate. The candidate in a constituency who gains most votes is returned as Member to the Commons.

If a Member of Parliament (MP) resigns, dies or is made a peer during the lifetime of a Parliament, a by-election must be held in his or her old constituency to elect a new member. No candidate requires the backing of a political party in order to stand for election, but today no independent candidates succeed in being elected. MPs are normally chosen by the constituency branch of the party, from a list of suitable candidates issued by the party headquarters.

3. The political party system has evolved since the eighteenth century, and since the first half of the nineteenth century has been essentially a two-party system. Today, this two-party contest is between the Conservative Party (still known by their previous nickname, the ‘Tories’) and the Labour Party, which emerged at the end of the nineteenth century as a result of the introduction of universal male suffrage and the decline of the Liberal Party.

The Conservative Party is the party of the Right, identified with the idea of economic freedom. It has successfully portrayed itself as the party of patriotism. Its support tends to lie with the wealthier classes, receiving much money from major business and financial institutions. It gives emphasis to the importance of law and order, and the maintenance of strong armed forces to protect British interests. It is highly disciplined and accepts the direction of the Prime Minister. Conservatives tend to be reluctant to express dissent from the leadership publicly.

The Labour Party is less disciplined but possibly more democratic, with more open disagreements between the leadership and other party members. Labour is preeminently 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. It tends to put the collective wellbeing of society above individual freedom, in the economic sphere at any rate. Traditionally it has been committed to public ownership of major industries, and to economic planning. The trade union movement, which founded the Labour Party, remains influential in the evolution of party policy.

The Liberal Party, which traces its origins to the eighteenth century ‘Whigs’, merged with the new Social Democratic Party in 1988 to become the Liberal Democrats. It seeks to attract the votes of the middle ground between Labour and the Conservatives.

3. England (with the exception of Greater London) and Wales are divided into fifty-three counties, within which there are 369 districts. Forty-seven of these counties, which are ‘non-metropolitan’, and all districts, have independent and locally elected councils. In Greater London itself the local government authorities are the councils of thirty-two London boroughs. In mainland Scotland there are nine regions, divided into fifty-three districts, and there are three all-purpose authorities for the island groups, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles. In Northern Ireland much is administered by area boards. But local services are provided by twenty-six district councils.

These county (or regional), district and borough councils provide the range of services – health, education, waste disposal, police and fire services – necessary for everyday life. The county councils usually look after the wider and larger responsibilities like planning, transport, highways, traffic regulation, health, education, and fire services. In principle, the local authorities have control over the local police.

It is the basic principle of local government that local people can devise a better system for the local context than can central government. As a result there is no standard system, since in each county the local authorities have the freedom to organize and administer services as they think will best suit the area. Closely related to this efficiency principle is the democratic one – the right of people to organize community affairs as they think best.