British Political System
 

WHO can explain the British political system to me? I'm reading and reading but I still don't know who the Brits vote for when they vote. Do they vote for the legislative branch only--and, if so, who are they? House of Commons? House of Lords? How do you get to be in the Houses? What is up with it? How does it work and is the Shadow cabinet like a hostile Congress? Can this be made easy?

When French vote right, English vote left. It's like cars ... ;)

We have quite a few parties that the people can vote for (parties like the Green Party, the British Nationalist Party,and even a Monster Raving Loony Party (for the those who want to make a protest vote), but essentially it comes down to two parties Labour (which is something close to the US Democrats in its goals and doctrine) and Tories, or Conservatives (a bit like the Republican party).

We can only vote to appoint our elected candidate to the House of Commons - one of the two Houses of Parliament. When it's time to vote, each party that wishes to be represented in the voting region (known as a Ward - and there are some 600 wards around the UK) will produce a candidate to be their representative. The voters are allowed one vote and it is a simple case of being the representative who has the most votes wins for his Ward.

So one or other party gains control of a Ward. Whichever party has the most Wards then has the right to form a government for a maximum term of four years. The elected members are known as Members of Parliament (MPs), and the head of the government party is known as the Prime Minister (PM). The PM will then form a close team to deal with all areas of government (Health, Education, Work & Pensions, Defence and so on - one area per person) and this team is known as the Cabinet.

The MPs that belong to the parties that don't win overall (i.e. have fewer Wards), join the Parliament as the Opposition (really Oppositions because each unsuccessful party is in effect an opposition party) and it is their job to keep the government on its toes and in line (if they have sufficient voting power to do this). They will argue vigorously against any proposals that the government presents where these clash or conflict with their Party's objectives. They are also fighting to win the people over to them so that they win power next election time. The Opposition parties will each form a Cabinet of individuals (where they have enough MPs to do this) similar to the one the Government has, so that they are well-placed to counter the Government on their proposals - the Opposition Cabinet is known as the Shadow Cabinet, but it has no powers only the means and structure to produce a viable counter to the Governments proposals.

The Cabinet decides on the policy or laws it wishes to introduce and then these are debated in the House of Commons, after which a vote is taken to see the proposed law (normally referred to as a Bill) being passed. It doesn't stop here however.

The new proposed law, once it succeeds in the Commons, is then passed for approval to an Upper Chamber, which is the House of Lords - this is made up of non-elected individuals who have acquired some form of title (Lord, Baron and so on), either through inheritance or by being awarded a title by the Queen (names are proposed by the PM). There is a ceremony conducted by the Queen which sees the title being officially given to each individual by her. The House of Lords debates and votes upon the proposed Bill, much the same as the House of Commons already has. The idea is that the Lords should ratify the Bills but more often than not they will send a Bill back to the House of Commons with a proposal for amendment. This may sound wierd that an unelected body can do this, but they do not have the same political bias that the lower house does and are very good at scrutinising the details of the Bills, ferreting out any areas where the Bill is insufficient or weak or unsuitable for its proposed purpose. They're a sort of fail-safe mechanism, but they can be a pain in the butt for a government as well, because they can slow down and frustrate the process - something governments don't like much. The Government has a means to override a Lords amendment but it is rarely used as the Lords thinking and reasoning is usually very sound. An maend,ent propsed by the Lords will be considered in The Commons and the propsed Bill may be adjusted and voted on again inthe Commons. It then passes again to the Lords for ratification (or even further amendment). Eventually the Bill becomes law and is introduced, but it may have been amended considerably before it achieves this.

The voters, or electorate, have access to their MPs during the period of the four years of Parliament, to encourage them to fight for certain causes and improvements. I (together with a number of people from our village) recently did this with our MP over some land near us that was likely to be sold to a third party who proposed to use it illegally.

That's briefly how the system works in its simplest form. If there's anything I've not explained well let me know and I will try to clarify it some more.

Hell this redneck got that down pat. But where's the part that the VP's companys kick in the money? To move the party onward and get the contracts. bb

Damn! That's such a part of everyday life it completely slipped my mind.

Busterb's right - it's known as the Brown Process and is split into two activities: Brown Nosing - where the would be philanthropist seeks recognition by sucking u-, no, no, by supporting his chosen party leader to favour him, and then there's: Brown Enveloping: the activity of making a gesture by means of payment, gift or other means as a sign of thanks when the sought recognition has been provided (although sometimes this second element may precede recognition and it then becomes slightly muddled with the first element).

Nice reply but the max is actually 5 years although most governments never go the full term.

There's also of course the local elections as well. At a local level, we have councils, which have some powers over local distribution and decision making. Similar to the National elections, there are two main parties, but unlike the local elections there is more likely to be a spread of votes to the smaller parrties and the winning party often has to form an alliance with another smaller party ( for instance, my local council is dominated by the Conservatives who have a de facto alliance with the Liberal Democrats)

Har! I shall be able to give you an insider's view of it all at the local level soon ( hopefully) as I am hoping to stand as a Labour Councillor for my area in the local elections next spring. I have been shortlisted by my branch and have to attend a selection meeting this Wednesday ( am dreading it hehehe) where I have to give a five minute presentation on what I stand for and what I think the party's priorities should be in Council.

OK so far. Would you say that there are only two really viable parties-Labour and Tories-who can actually win elections? The other parties mentioned---do they have any impact at all?

Just to further complicate mattters there is also a Welsh Assembly and a Scottish Parliment so the UK has more politicians than you can shake a stick at.
And every one of them have their noses in the trough...

Generally yes, unless the winning party doesn't have an overall majority (meaning that its total seats exceed those of all the other parties added together), or if the majority is very small. This can make it difficult for the government to pass its proposed laws as there are too many others who can rock the boat (often from inside their own party), so the marginal parties sometimes with maybe only 5-10 seats can acquire a position of power to swing a vote for or against the ruling party. Doesn't happen that often, but it has happened in the distant past.