Politica del reino unido

Venezuelan Bolivarian Republic
Superior Education Ministry

English II

Politics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Wednesday, 23 September 2009

Index

Politics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 1

Introduction 4

Politics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland 5

United Kingdom 5The United Kingdom Government 5

Monarch 5

The Prime Minister 7

The cabinet of the Scottish Government 7

Government Departments and the Civil Service 8

UK Parliament 8

House of Commons 8

House of Lords 9

Devolved national legislatures 10

Legislatures 10

Scottish Parliament 11

Welsh Assembly 12

Northern Ireland assembly 13Judiciary 13

England, Wales and Northern Ireland 14

Scotland 14

Electoral systems 14

Political parties 15

Labour 16

Conservatives (Tories) 17

Liberal Democrats 18

Scottish and Welsh Nationalists 19

Northern Ireland parties 19

Other parliamentary parties 19

Non-Parliamentary political parties 20

Current political landscape 21Local Government 21

Conclusion 22

Introduction

The politics in the United Kingdom operate within a ‘constitutional monarchy’ similar to some other countries like Spain, Sweden, Thailand, Denmark, Japan, and the Netherlands to name a few. Whilst the Queen is head of state, the Prime Minister is head of government. Since 1999, the UK government has shared executive powers with thedevolved governments of the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and Northern Ireland Assembly.
Each of the United Kingdom parliaments or assemblies has elected political parties.
In England, the most dominant are the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democratic parties. Meanwhile in the other regions notable parties are: The Scottish National Party in Scotland, Plaid Cymru in Wales, and variousunionist parties and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland.
The UK Parliament in London is at the heart of the political system in Britain and is the legislative body for the UK and British overseas territories. Parliament has two legislative parliamentary bodies, the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
The House of Lords includes three types of members, Bishops from the Church of England, nobility(British honours system) and Law Lords (Judges). Its members are not elected and appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minster. The House of Commons consists of democratically elected Members of Parliament from various different political parties. Elections are held every five years.

Politics of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

United Kingdom

The UnitedKingdom, consisting of Great Britain (England, Wales, and Scotland) and Northern Ireland, is twice the size of New York State. England, in the southeast part of the British Isles, is separated from Scotland on the north by the granite Cheviot Hills; from them the Pennine chain of uplands extends south through the center of England, reaching its highest point in the Lake District in the northwest. Tothe west along the border of Wales a land of steep hills and valleys are the Cambrian Mount ains, while the Cotswolds, a range of hills in Gloucestershire, extend into the surrounding shires.

The United Kingdom Government

The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a queen and a parliament that has two houses: the House of Lords, with 574 life peers, 92hereditary peers, and 26 bishops; and the House of Commons, which has 651 popularly elected members. Supreme legislative power is vested in parliament, which sits for five years unless dissolved sooner. The House of Lords was stripped of most of its power in 1911, and now its main function is to revise legislation. In Nov. 1999, hundreds of hereditary peers were expelled in an effort to make the...