United Kingdom mainly has four parts. From which three parts – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have local administrations. This administration has with a wide range of responsibilities. Fourth part England represents over 80% of the total UK population which is around 60 million but it does not have a clear and strong local administration. In UK the British monarch is the head of state and theoretical source of executive, judicial and legislative power. At present Queen Elizabeth II is the British monarch in UK.
The monarch has a lot of powers. Any British can be chosen as Prime Minister by the monarch. The monarch also has the power to call or dissolve the Parliament whenever he or she wished. But according to current unwritten constitution Prime Minister dissolve the Parliament. The monarch retains the ability to deny giving a bill Royal Assent. But in modern time this situation rarely occurs because it may become the cause of constitutional crisis.
UK Goverment
According to classical political theory UK government has three parts- . The legislature – It is an elected body that passes new laws. The UK Parliament is the highest legislative body in the United Kingdom means Parliament has supreme power. There is also a devolved Scottish Parliament and devolved Assemblies in Wales and Northern Ireland, with varying degrees of legislative authority. 2. The executive – The Ministers who run the country and propose new laws comes into this part. 3. The judiciary – The judges and the courts is called the judiciary which ensure that everyone obeys the laws.
The UK parlament
Westminster is another name of The British Parliament because it is housed in a building in central London called the Palace of Westminster. The British Parliament is bicameral means it has two houses or chambers. One is known as The House of Commons and another is known as The House of Lords.
1. The House of Commons- It is the lower chamber. it is chaired by the Speaker. Presently The House of Commons has 646 seats. It is a very big legislature in the world. “ The House of Commons” works most days of the week for about half of the weeks of the year.
Each seat represents a geographical region. Generally one seat represents 60, 000-80, 000 voters but it depends on the type of the area (i. e. it is an urban or rural area). Every citizen aged 18 or over can vote once in the constituency in which they live. Voting is not compulsory in UK. An electoral system is used in UK for election. It is also called the simple majority system or ‘first past the post’. In this system, the country is divided into a number of constituencies.
The member that wins the majority of votes in that area wins that constituency. The party who wins the maximum constituencies wins the election nationwide even if it does not win a majority of the votes nationwide. The term parliament is not fixed in UK. Prime minister can call a nationwide election for all 646 seats whenever he or she wished, but the election cannot be more than five years after the last one and it is usually around four years after the last one.
2. The House of Lords- It is the upper chamber.
It is an absolutely out of the ordinary body that has no parallel anywhere in the democratic world. The British political system is not totally logical or democratic. Members in the House of Lords are not fixed, at present it has 747 members. Most members of the House of Lords are called hereditary peers. This means that years ago a king or queen selected a member of the aristocracy to be a member of the House and this right to sit in the House has passed through the family from generation to generation.
This is totally undemocratic and the current Labour Government has abolished the right of all but 92 of these hereditary peers to sit in the House. Almost all the other members of today’s House of Lords are called life peers. These all members are nominated by the Queen. This is done on the advice of the Government. The members have the right to sit in the House for as long as they live, but afterwards no member of their family has the right to sit in the House.
Number of life peers is not fixed. Currently they are 629. Many of them are senior politician, some of them are the persons who did very well in their field like education, health, social service. Apart from these 26 members are Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England.
Legislations in the British political system are suggested by the Government and many of them come from promises made by the relevant political party at the last election.
Queen of UK announces the main bills in her speech that opens the year’s session of parliament. Both Houses of Parliament proposed the pieces of legislation called bill which goes through different stages and that’s how the legislation is approved. The House of Commons has more legislative powers than House of Lords POLITICAL PARTIES There are some political parties in the British system of politics. Out of them three are major named as below.
• The Labour Party often called New Labour – the centre-Left party The Conservative Party frequently called the Tories– the centre-Right party.
• The Liberal Democrat Party known as the Lib Dems– the centrist, libertarian party Political party which has largest number of members in the House of Commons chooses his leader which becomes Prime Minster (formally at the invitation of the Queen). 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 UK Goverment
1. The Prime Minister- There is no President in UK. Queen has got the rights constitutionally but she has very few formal powers and stays above party politics. So the Prime Minister becomes the most important person in the British political system. He decides the ministry and moreover his work is like president in other political systems.
2. Government Departments- The most important political departments are called: The Treasury- The head of the Treasury is called the Chancellor of the Exchequer.
This department is responsible for increasing of all taxes and the control of all government expenditure plus the general management of the economy. The Home Office – The Head of the Home Office is called the Home Secretary the department is responsible for criminal matters, policing, and immigration. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office – The head of the Foreign Office is called the Foreign Secretary. Membership of the European Union is managed by this department. It is also responsible for all international relationships.
Some other departments are of education, health, transport, industry, and justice.
3. Government Ministers- All Government Departments are run by Ministers. We have three classes of Minister:
• Secretary of State – This is usually the head of a Department.
• Minister of State – This is a middle-ranking minister.
• Under-Secretary of State – This is the most junior class of minister. Cabinet, executive body of government, is comprised of The Prime Minster and all the Secretaries of State. The Cabinet meets usually once a week.
