BRITISH POLITICAL SYSTEM
Contents
The single most important fact in understanding the nature of the British political system is that Britain has not been invaded or occupied for almost 1,000 years. The last successful invasion was in 1066 by the Normans. Is this true of any other country in the world?
This explains why:
Another important feature of our political history is that three parts of the United Kingdom – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – have a special status and have local administrations with a wide range of responsibilities. However, England - which represents over 80% of the total UK population of around 60 million – does not have a clear and strong sense of regionalism. So the British political system does not have anything equivalent to federal system of the 50 states in the USA.
The final important part of political history is that, since 1973, we have been a member of what is now called the European Union. This now has 27 members states covering most of the continent of Europe. The UK Government and Parliament are limited in some respects by what they can do because certain areas of policy or decision-making are a matter for the European Union which operates through a European Commission appointed by the member governments and a European Parliament elected by the citizens of the member states.
The British political system is headed by an hereditary monarchy but essentially the powers of the monarch -currently Queen Elizabeth II- are ceremonial.
In classical political theory, there are three arms of government:
This is not the case in the UK:
The British Parliament is often called Westminster because it is housed in a distinguished building in central London called the Palace of Westminster.
The British Parliament – like most in the world – is bicameral, that is there are two houses or chambers. The only exceptions to this practice around the world are some small countries such as Israel and New Zealand.
The House of Commons
This is our lower chamber. I worked there as a Research Assistant to Merlyn Rees MP, then Labour's Opposition spokesperson on Northern Ireland, from 1972-1974.
Link: House of Commons site click here
The House of Lords
This is our upper chamber. It is an utterly bizarre institution that has no parallel anywhere in the democratic world. The explanation for its unusual nature goes back to the beginning of this essay: the British political system has evolved very slowly and peacefully and it is not totally logical or democratic.
Link: House of Lords site click here
The passage of legislation
Link: Bill stages click here
Some distinguishing features of the British Parliamentary system
Therre are three major political parties in the British system of politics:
Each political party chooses its leader in a different way, but all involve all the Members of Parliament of the party and all the individual members of that party. The leader of the political party with the largest number of members in the House of Commons becomes the 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 Prime Minister
The UK does not have a President. Constitutionally the Head of State is the Queen who is a hereditary member of the Royal Family. However, the Queen has very few formal powers and stays above party politics.
So, in practice, the most important person in the British political system in the Prime Minister. The first modern Prime Minister was Sir Robert Walpole who served from 1721-1742, so the current PM - Gordon Brown - is the 52nd. In theory, the Prime Minister simply choses the ministers who run Government departments and chairs the Cabinet – the collection of the most senior of those Ministers. In practice, however, the Prime Minister is a very powerful figure and increasingly has been behaving much like a president in other political systems, especially in the area of foreign policy. The official residence of the Prime Minister is at 10 Downing Street.
Link: Prime Minister click here
Government Departments
The most important political departments are called:
Link: Treasury site click here
Link: Home Office site click here
Link: Foreign Office site click here
Many other UK Government Departments are similar to those in other countries and cover subjects such as education, health, transport, industry, and justice. However,we also have departments for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Government Ministers
All Government Departments are run by Ministers who are either Members of the House of Commons or Members of the House of Lords. We have three classes of Minister:
The Prime Minster and all the Secretaries of State together comprise an executive body of government called the Cabinet. The Cabinet meets usually once a week. Traditionally these weekly meetings have been held on Thursday morning but, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, he moved them to Tuesday morning. Cabinet meetings are confidential and all members are bound by any decision that it takes in a practice called collective responsibility. An extensive system of Cabinet Committees considers matters either before they go to Cabinet or (more usually) instead of them going to Cabinet.
Although all Ministers are appointed by the Prime Minster and report to him, ultimately all Ministers are accountable to Parliament:
The civil service
Each Secretary of State is able to appoint a couple of political advisers – formally known as Special Advisers – to serve him or her. I was a Special Adviser to Merlyn Rees in the Northern Ireland Office from 1974-1976 and in the Home Office from 1976-1978, while my son Richard was a Special Adviser to Ruth Kelly in the Department for Education & Skills in 2005.
But Special Advisers are simply advisers. They have no line management responsibilities in respect of the staff of the Department. Besides these tiny number of Special Advisers, Government Departments are run by civil servants who are recruited in a totally open manner and serve governments of any political parties. The independence and professional of the British civil service is a fundamental feature of the British political system.
The UK has a devolved system of government, but this is categorically not a system of federal government such as in the United States [click here] or Australia, partly because less than a fifth of the citizens of the UK are covered the three bodies in question and partly because the three bodies themselves have different powers from one another.
The three devolved administrations are:
The Scottish Parliament
This came into operation in May 1999 and covers the 5M citizens of Scotland. It has 129 members elected by a system of proportional representation known as the mixed member system. As a result, 73 members represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the 'first past the post' system, with a further 56 members returned from eight additional member regions, each electing seven members. All members are elected for four-year terms.
The Scottish Parliament meets in Holyrood, Edinburgh. It has legislative powers over those matters not reserved to the UK Parliament and it has limited tax-raising powers.
Link: Scottish Parliament click here
The Welsh Assembly
This came into operation in May 1999 and covers the 3M citizens of Wales. It has 60 members elected by a system of proportional representation known as the mixed member system. As a result, 40 members represent individual geographical constituencies elected by the 'first past the post' system, with a further 20 members returned from five additional member regions, each electing four members. All members are elected for four-year terms.
It meets in the Senedd, Cardiff. When first created, the Assembly had no powers to initiate primary legislation. However, since 2006, the Assembly now has powers to legislate in some areas, though still subject to the veto of the Westminster Parliament. The Assembly has no tax-varying powers. The Welsh Assembly, therefore, has less power than either the Scottish Parliament or the Northern Ireland Assembly because – unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland – Wales does not have a separate legal system from England.
Link: Welsh Assembly click here
The Northern Ireland Assembly
The present version of the Assembly came into operation in May 2007 and covers the 1.5M citizens of Northern Ireland. It has 108 members - six from each of the 18 Westminster constituencies - elected by a system of proportional representation known as the single transferable vote.
It meets in the Parliament Building, Belfast. It has legislative powers over those matters not reserved to the UK Parliament, but it has no tax-raising powers.
A First Minister and a Deputy First Minister are elected to lead the Executive Committee of Ministers. As a result of the sectarian division in Northern Ireland, the two must stand for election jointly and to be elected they must have cross-community support by the parallel consent formula, which means that a majority of both the Members who have designated themselves Nationalists and those who have designated themselves Unionists and a majority of the whole Assembly, must vote in favour. The First Minister and Deputy First Minister head the Executive Committee of Ministers and acting jointly, determine the total number of Ministers in the Executive.
Link: Northern Ireland Assembly click here
The British judicial branch is extremely complex. Unlike most countries which operate a single system of law, the UK operates three separate legal systems: one for England and Wales, one for Scotland, and one for Northern Ireland. Although bound by similar principles, these systems differ in form and the manner of operation.
Currently a process of reform is in operation. The Lord Chancellor's office - which for 1,400 years maintained the judiciary - has now been replaced by a Department of Constitutional Affairs which administers the court system. A Judical Appointments Commission has been set up to advise the head of the DCA on the appointment of new judges.
One cannot explain a liberal democracy such as the United Kingdom simply by talking about the formal political and governmental institutions any more than one can understood fish without talking about water.
Democratic government cannot operate with a strong civil society to support it and hold political and governmental bodies to account. The special history of the UK – involving gradual changes over long periods – has created a subtle but effective civil society that outsiders often find a little difficult to understand. So it is useful to list some of the more important elements of such a civil society:
Bill of Rights – Although Britain does not have a written constitution, it does have a Bill of Rights because it is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights which was drawn up by a body called the Council of Europe. The European Convention is part of our domestic law so that it can be enforced in our domestic courts as well as in the European Court of Human Rights.
Independent judiciary – Our judges are appointed through an independent process and operate totally independently of government. They can find that a Government Minister has acted against a law of the UK Parliament or a Directive of the European Union or against the European Convention and require the Minister to change his actions.
A free media – As long as they are not being libelous, newspapers, radio and television can say what they want about the Parliament, the Government and politicians. An important new development is the Internet. Web sites and weblogs can say what they want about politicians and political issues. I have a web site and a weblog and I often write about political issues. There is no need in the UK to register a newspaper or web site or to obtain permission to run it.
Freedom of information legislation – We have a Freedom of Information Act which is a piece of legislation that obliges national government, local government and most public bodies to provide any information requested by an citizen. The only exceptions are things like information which concern national security, commercial confidentiality or the private matters of citizens.
Trade unions - About a quarter of workers in Britain are members of trade unions representing different occupational groups or industries. These trade unions are totally independent of government and employers. I was a national trade union official for 24 years and believe strongly in independent trade unions.
Pressure groups – We have lots and lots of organisations that campaign publicly on political issues such as poverty, pensions, and the environment. They perform an invaluable role in putting forward ideas and holding politicians to account.
Charities and voluntary groups – Similarly we have lots and lots of organisations that do some of the things that governments does as well such as running schools and hospitals, looking after the poor and old, and cleaning up the environment.
Compared to many other democracies, institutional and procedural reform in the British political system has been very slow, gradual and piecemeal. However, there is a growing movement for more fundamental reform and the new Government of Gordon Brown has reflected this in a Green Paper entitled "The Governance Of Britain".
Link: "The Governance Of Britain" click here
The Liberal Party has gone further and called for a written constitution for the first time in Britain's history.
So the scene is set for more change than for many decades.
ROGER DARLINGTON
Last modified on 6 September 2007
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