A SHORT GUIDE TO THE BRITISH
POLITICAL SYSTEM
Contents
The single most important fact in understanding the nature of the
British political system is the fundamental continuity of that system. We have
not had a revolution of the kind experienced by so many other countries and
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?
Some might argue that the English Civil War (1642–1651) was 'our'
revolution but the main constitutional consequence - the abolition of the
monarchy - only lasted 11 years and the Restoration of the Monarchy has so far
lasted 350 years (although it is now, of course, a very different monarchy).
There was a time in our history which we call the Glorious Revolution but it
was a very English revolution, in the sense that nobody died, if a rather Dutch
revolution in that it saw William of Orange take the throne.
So the British have never had anything equivalent to the American
Revolution or the French Revolution, they have not been colonised in a
millennium but rather been the greatest colonisers in history, and in neither
of the two world wars were they invaded or occupied.
This explains why:
- almost uniquely
in the world we have no written constitution
- our political
system is not neat or logical or always fully democratic
- change has been
very gradual and pragmatic and built on consensus
To simplify our political history very much, it has essentially
been a struggle to shift political power and accountability from the
all-powerful king who claimed that he obtained his right to rule from God to a
national parliament that was increasingly representative of ordinary people and
accountable to ordinary people. There have been many milestones along this long
and troubled road to full democracy.
A key date in this evolution was 1215 when King John was forced to
sign the Magna Carta which involved him sharing power with the barons. This is
regarded as the first statement of citizen rights in the world - although
Hungarians are proud of the Golden Bull of just seven years later.
The so-called Model Parliament was summoned by King Edward I in
1295 and is regarded as the first representative assembly. Unlike the absolute
monarchs of other parts of Europe, the King of England required the approval of
Parliament to tax his subjects and so, then as now, central to the exercise of
power was the ability to raise funds.
The bicameral nature of the British Parliament - Commons and Lords
- emerged in 1341 and the two-chamber model of the legislature has served as a
model in very many other parliamentary systems.
It was the 19th century before the franchise was seriously
extended and each extension was the subject of conflict and opposition. The
great Reform Act of 1832 abolished 60 'rotten', or largely unpopulated,
boroughs and extended the vote from 400,000 citizens to 600,000, but this
legislation - promoted by the Whigs (forerunners of the Liberals) - was only
carried after being opposed three times by the Tories (forerunners of the
Conservatives). It was 1918 before the country achieved a near universal
franchise and 1970 before the last extension of the franchise (to 18-21 year
olds).
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 about 84% 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 the federal system of the 50 states in the USA.
The final important part of our political history is that, since
1973, we have been a member of what is now called the European Union (EU). This
now has 27 Member States covering most of the continent of Europe. Therefore
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 EU
which operates through a European Commission appointed by the member
governments and a European Parliament elected by the citizens of the member
states.
THREE ARMS OF THE STATE
The British political system is headed by a monarchy but
essentially the powers of the monarch as head of state - currently Queen
Elizabeth II - are ceremonial. The most important practical power is the choice
of the Member of Parliament to form a government, but invariably the monarch
follows the convention that this opportunity is granted to the leader of the
political party with the most seats in the House of Commons.
The monarch is determined on the hereditary and primogeniture
principles which means that the oldest male child of a monarch is the next in
line to the throne. Under the terms of the Act of Settlement of 1701, the
monarch and the monarch's spouse cannot be Catholics because the UK monarch is
also the Head of the Church of England. These archaic arrangements are
currently under review.
In classical political theory, there are three arms of the state:
- The executive –
the Ministers who run the country and propose new laws
- The legislature
– the elected body that passes new laws
- The judiciary –
the judges and the courts who ensure that everyone obeys the laws
In the political system of the United States, the constitution
provides that there must be a strict separate of powers of these three arms of
the state, so that no individual can be a member of more than one. So, for
example, the President is not and cannot be a member of the Congress. This
concept is called 'separation of powers', a term coined by the French
political, enlightenment thinker Montesquieu.
This is not the case in the UK:
- all Ministers in
the government are members of the legislature
- some very senior
judges sit in the upper house of the parliament
- the formal head
of the judiciary is a senior minister
This is an illustration of how pragmatic and flexible the British
political system is.
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 the lower chamber but the one with the most authority. I
worked there as a Research Assistant to Merlyn Rees MP, then Labour's
Opposition spokesperson on Northern Ireland, from 1972-1974.
- The House of
Commons sits each week day for about half of the weeks of the year. The
precise hours of sitting are:
- Monday 2.30 -
10.30 pm
- Tuesday 2.30 -
10.30 pm
- Wednesday 11.30
am - 7.30 pm
- Thursday 10.30
am - 6.30 pm
- Friday 9.30 am
- 3 pm
- The Commons is
chaired by the Speaker. Unlike the Speaker in the US House of
Representatives, the post is non-political and indeed, by convention, the
political parties do not contest the Parliamentary constituency held by
the Speaker.
- The House of
Commons currently comprises 650 Members of Parliament or MPs (the number
varies slightly from time to time to reflect population change). This is a
large legislature by international standards. For instance, the House of
Representatives in the USA has 435 seats but, of course, each of the 50 US
states has its own legislature. Before the last General Election, the
Conservative Party said that it wished to reduce the number of Commons
seats by around 10% (65 seats) and the Liberal Democrats said that the
Commons should be reduced by 150 MPs. The new Coalition Government has now
announced that it plans legislation to to reduce the number from 650 to
600 as part of a wider change to the number and size of constituencies.
- Rather oddly
(but deliberately), there is insufficient seating capacity in the chamber
of the House of Commons for all the MPs. Members do not sit at desks (like
most legislatures) but on long, green-covered benches and there is only
seating capacity for 437 MPs out of the total of 650.
- Each member in
the House of Commons represents a geographical constituency. Typically a
constituency would have around 60,000-80,000 voters, depending mainly on
whether it is an urban or rural constituency. The largest constituency in
the country is the Isle of Wight with 108,253 electors at the last General
Election, while the smallest is Na h-Eileanan an Iar (formerly known as
the Western Isles) with an electorate of only 21,884. The current
Coalition Government intends to make the size of constituencies more equal
in terms of electors.
- Every citizen
aged 18 or over can vote once in the constituency in which they live.
Voting is not compulsory (as it is in Australia). In the last General
Election of June 2010, 65% of the electorate actually voted. Most
democratic countries use a method of election called proportional
representation which means that there is a reasonable correlation between
the percentage of votes cast for a particular political party and the
number of seats or representatives won by that party. However, much of the
Anglo-Saxon world – the USA, Canada, and the UK but not Australia or New
Zealand – uses a method of election called the simple majority system or
'first past the post'. In this system, the country is divided into a
number of constituencies each with a single member and the party that wins
the largest number of votes in each constituency wins that constituency
regardless of the proportion of the vote secured. The simple majority
system of election tends to under-represent less successful political
parties and to maximise the chance of the most popular political party
winning a majority of seats nationwide even if it does not win a majority
of the votes nationwide.
- In the UK,
unlike many countries, there are not fixed term parliaments. A General
Election – that is, a nationwide election for all 650 seats – is held when
the Prime Minister calls it, but the election cannot be more than five
years after the last one and it is usually around four years after the
last one. I fought the General Elections of February 1974 and October 1974
as the Labour candidate for the north-east London constituency of Wanstead
& Woodford. The new Coalition Government plans to introduce
legislation providing for fixed five-year parliaments which implies that
the next General Election will be on 7 May 2015.
The last General Election was held in May 2010 and the result was
as follows:
- Conservative
Party: 306 seats (up 97) with a voting share of 36.1% (up 3.8%)
- Labour Party:
258 seats (down 91) with a voting share of 29.0% (down 6.2%)
- Liberal Democrat
Party: 57 seats (down 5) with a voting share of 23.0% (up 1.0%)
- Other parties:
28 seats (down 3) with a voting share of 11.9% (down 1.4%)
- Total turnout
nationwide was 65.1% up 4.0% on 2005
Note 1: In practice, the Speaker - notionally Conservative - is
not counted against any political party because he is required to be neutral.
Note 2: One constituency has still not voted because the death of
a candidate postponed that election.
The House of Lords
This is the upper chamber but the one with less authority. Its
main roles are to revise legislation and keep a check on Government by
scrutinising its activities. Since 1911, its power to block "money
bills" is limited to one month and its power to block other bills is
limited to one session, so ultimately it cannot block the will of the House of
Commons.
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.
- There is no
fixed number of members in the House of Lords, but currently there are
around 830 members - many more than in the House of Commons. The number
was actually halved to 666 in the reforms of 1999 but, since then,
succesive Prime Ministers have been adding new life peers much faster than
members are dying.
- Historically
most members of the House of Lords have been what we called hereditary
peers. This mean that years ago a king or queen nominated a member of the
aristocracy to be a member of the House and, since then, the right to sit
in the House has passed through the family from generation to generation.
Clearly this is totally undemocratic and the last Labour Government
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 what we call life peers. This
means that they have been chosen by the Queen, on the advice of the
Government, 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. Many are
former senior politicians. Others are very distinguished figures in fields
such as education, health and social policy.
- A small number
of other members - 26 - are Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of
England. Iran is the only other country in the world that provides
automatic seats for senior religious figures in its legislature.
- House of Lords
reform is unfinished business. The Parliament Act of 1911 first raised the
prospect of an elected upper house but it has still not happened. There is
a cross-party consensus that it should become a mainly elected body
although there is as yet no agreement on the details of the next stage of
reform.
Link: House of Lords site click here
Some distinguishing features of the British Parliamentary system
- Much of the work
of Parliament is done in Committees rather than on the floor of the
chamber. The House of Commons has two types of committee:
- Select
Committees are appointed for the lifetime of a Parliament, 'shadow' the
work of a particular Government Department, conduct investigations,
receive written and oral evidence, and issue reports. Membership is made
up only of backbenchers and reflects proportionately the balance of the
parties in the Commons.
- General
Committees (previously known as Standing Committees) are temporary
bodies, most of them Public Bill Committees formed to examine the detail
of a particular piece of proposed legislation and consider amendments to
the Bill. Membership includes Government and Opposition spokepersons on
the subject mater of the Bill and overall membership reflects
proportionately the balance of the parties in the Commons.
- The House of
Lords only has Select Committees (it does not need Standing Committees
because the details of Bills are considered on the floor of the chamber).
- Finally there
are some Joint Committees of the Commons and the Lords.
- Discussion and
debate involve quite a gladiatorial or confrontational approach. This is
reflected in the physical shape of the chambers. Whereas most legislatures
are semi-circular, both the House of Commons and the House of Lords are
rectangular with the Government party sitting on one side and the Opposition
parties sitting on the other side. The House of Lords alone has
cross-benches for independent peers. It is quite normal for speakers in
debates to be interrupted by other members, especially of another party,
and, in the Commons, cheering and jeering is a regular occurrence.
- In the Commons,
there is a Prime Minister's Question (PMQ) Time for 30 minutes at 12 noon
every Wednesday. Questions can be asked on any subject. This is frequently
a heated affair with the Leader of the Opposition trying to embarrass the
Prime Minister and it is the one part of the week's proceedings guaranteed
to attract the interest of the media. In his book "A Journey",
former Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote: "PMQs was the most
nerve-wracking, discombobulating, nail-biting, bowel-moving,
terror-inspiring, courage-draining experience in my prime ministerial
life, without question."
- The Government
is normally assured of a majority in the House of Commons for any measure
or vote. This is mainly because in the Commons there is a strong
'whipping' system in which political parties tell their members how to
vote on every significant division though a weekly set of instructions.
The importance of actually being present to vote in the manner instructed
depends on whether the 'whip' is one-line, two-line or - the most serious
- three-line. Even when there is a rebellion by members of the majority
party, the Government usually obtains its wish because all Ministers and
their Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs) are required to vote for
the Government or resign their Ministerial or PPS position. This is called
'the payroll vote' (although PPS are not actually paid to be a PPS) and
currently around 120 MPs or 22% of the Commons make up this block vote.
- The official
record of the proceedings of the Commons and the Lords is called Hansard.
The press and broadcasters are present all the time and live audio and
visual broadcasting can take place at any time.
In the British political system, almost all legislation is proposed
by the Government and much of it comes from promises made in the manifesto of
the relevant political party at the last election. At the beginning of each
annual session of the Parliament, the main Bills to be considered are announced
by the Queen in a speech opening that year's session of Parliament.
All legislation has to be approved by both Houses of Parliament.
In each House of Parliament, a proposed piece of legislation –
called a Bill – goes through the following stages:
- First Reading –
the Bill is introduced with simply a reading by a Minister of the long
title of the Bill
- Second Reading –
the general principles of the Bill are debated by all the members of the
House and a formal vote is taken
- Committee Stage
– each clause and schedule of the Bill, plus amendments to them and any
new clauses or schedules, is examined in detail, in the Commons by a
small, specially chosen group of members meeting as Public Bill Committee,
in the Lords by the members as a whole on the floor of the House
- Report Stage –
the changes made to the Bill in the Committee are reported to and debated
by the whole House which is invited to consider the Bill as a whole,
approve the changes by the Committee, and consider any further proposed
changes that might be suggested
- Third Reading –
the final version of the Bill is considered by the whole House in a short
debate (in the Commons without the facility for further amendments)
- Royal Assent -
the Crown gives assent to the Bill which then becomes an Act, the
provisions becoming law either immediately or at a date specified in the
Act or at a date specified by what is called a Commencement Order
Several points are worth noting about the legislative process:
- Under normal
circumstances, all these stages must be completed in both Houses in one
session of Parliament; otherwise the process must begin all over again.
- Debates on most
Bills are timetabled through a programme motion (when Government and
Opposition agree) or an allocation of time motion which is popularly known
as a 'guillotine' motion (when Government and Opposition do not agree).
- As well almost
all legislation coming from the Government, almost all successful
amendments originate from the Government.
- The House of
Lords has much more limited legislative powers than the House of Commons.
Money Bills can only be initiated in the Commons and the Lords can only
reject legislation from the Commons for one year. Furthermore there is a
convention - called the Salisbury Convention - that the Lords does not
block legislature in fulfillment of the election manifesto of the elected
Government.
The idea of political parties first took form in Britain and the
Conservative Party claims to be the oldest political party in the world.
Political parties began to form during the English civil wars of the 1640s and
1650s. First, there were Royalists and Parliamentarians; then Tories and Whigs.
Whereas the Whigs wanted to curtail the power of the monarch, the Tories -
today the Conservatives - were seen as the patriotic party.
Today there are three major political parties in the British
system of politics:
- The Labour Party
(often called New Labour) – the centre-Left party currently led by Ed
Miliband
- The Conservative
Party (frequently called the Tories) – the centre-Right party currently
led by David Cameron
- The Liberal
Democrat Party (known as the Lib Dems) – the centrist, libertarian party
currently led by Nick Clegg
In addition to these three main parties, there are some much
smaller UK parties (notably the UK Independence Party and the Green Party) and
some parties which operate specifically in Scotland (the Scottish National
Party), Wales (Plaid Cymru) or Northern Ireland (such as Sinn Fein for the
nationalists and the Democratic Unionist Party for the loyalists).
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. By convention, 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).
Political parties are an all-important feature of the British
political system because:
- The three main
political parties in the UK have existed for a century or more and have a
strong and stable 'brand image'.
- It is virtually
impossible for someone to be elected to the House of Commons without being
a member of an established political party.
- All political
parties strongly 'whip' their elected members which means that, on the
vast majority of issues, Members of Parliament of the same party vote as a
'block'.
Having said this, the influence of the three main political
parties is not as dominant as it was in the 1940s and 1950s because:
- The three
parties have smaller memberships than they did since voters are much less
inclined to join a political party.
- The three
parties secure a lower overall percentage of the total vote since smaller
parties between them now take a growing share of the vote.
- Voters are much
less 'tribal', supporting the same party at every election, and much more
likely to 'float, voting for different parties at successive elections.
- The ideological
differences between the parties are less than they were with the parties
adopting more 'pragmatic' positions on many issues.
In the past, class was a major determinant of voting intention in
British politics, with most working class electors voting Labour and most
middle class electors voting Conservative. These days, class is much less
important because:
- Working class
numbers have shrunk and now represent only 43% of the electorate.
- Except at the
extremes of wealth, lifestyles are more similar.
- Class does not
determine voting intention so much as values, trust and competence.
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 main differences between the political parties concern:
- how to tackle
poverty and inequality
- the levels and
forms of taxation
- the extent of
state intervention in the economy
- the balance
between collective rights and individual rights
Historically most British governments have been composed of
ministers from a single political party which had an overall majority of seats
in the House of Commons and the 'first-past-the-post' (FPTP) electoral system
greatly facilitates and indeed promotes this outcome. However, occasionally
there have been minority governments or coalition governments.
Currently the UK has its first coalition government in 65 years
since, in May 2010, the Conservatives went into coalition with the Liberal
Democrats because in the General Election they did not secure a majority of the
seats. In this coalition, the Lib Dems have 17 ministers led by the Deputy
Prime Minister Nick Clegg.
The Prime Minister
The UK does not have a President. Constitutionally the head of
state is the monarch who is a hereditary member of the Royal Family. However,
the monarch has very few formal powers and stays above party politics.
So, in practice, the most important person in the British
political system is the Prime Minister. The first modern Prime Minister was Sir
Robert Walpole who served from 1721-1742, so the current PM - David Cameron -
is the 53rd (and, on first taking office, the youngest since 1812, a few months
younger than when Tony Blair became PM in 1997). 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.
Government Departments
The most important political departments are called:
- The Treasury –
In most countries, this would be called the Ministry of Finance. It is
responsible for the raising of all taxes and the control of all government
expenditure plus the general management of the economy. The head of the
Treasury is called the Chancellor of the Exchequer and is currently George
Osborne (who, on taking office, was the youngest Chancellor for more than
180 years).
- The Home Office
- In most countries, this would be called the Ministry of the Interior. It
is responsible for criminal matters, policing, and immigration. The Head
of the Home Office is called the Home Secretary and is currently Teresa
May.
- The Foreign and
Commonwealth Office – In most countries, this would be called the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs. It is responsible for all our international
relationships, especially our membership of the European Union. The head
of the Foreign Office is called the Foreign Secretary and is currently
William Hague.
Many other UK Government Departments are similar to those in other
countries and cover subjects such as education, health, transport, industry,
and justice. However, there are also departments for Scotland, Wales and
Northern Ireland.
When talking about the British Government, the media will often
use the term Whitehall because a number of Government Departments are located
along a central London street very close to Parliament called Whitehall.
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:
- Secretary of
State – This is usually the head of a Department.
- Minister of
State – This is a middle-ranking minister.
- Parliamentary
Under-Secretary of State – This is the most junior class 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 on 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:
- About once a
month, they have to face questions in the House of Commons about the work
of the Department.
- Each government
department has a special committee of the House of Commons which watches
the work of that Department.
- Any government
initiative or important statement concerning a Department must be the
subject of an appearance in the House of Commons by a minister from that
Department.
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 and
a Special Adviser to Douglas Alexander at the Department for International
Development in 2009-2010.
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. My son
Richard once worked as a civil servant in what was then the Department of Trade
& Industry and my half-brother Chris was an official in the Treasury for
five years.
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.
In the election of May 2011, for the first time a single political
party gained an overall majority of the seats in the Scottish Parliament. That
party is the Scottish National Party which intends to hold a referendum seeking
support for Scottish independence from the remainder of the UK.
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.
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.
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 the Ministry for Justice which
administers the court system. A Judical Appointments Commission has been set up
to advise the head of the MoJ on the appointment of new judges.
The Appellate Committee of the House of Lords - previously the
highest court in the land - was, by way of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,
replaced by the Supreme Court in October 2009 to allow the judiciary to operate
in total independence from the Government. The Supreme Court is now the
ultimate court of appeal in all legal matters other than criminal cases in
Scotland. It consists of 12 judges and sits in the Middlesex Guildhall in
Parliament Square.
The UK does not have its own Bill of Rights. However, since 1951
it has been a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights (part of the
Council of Europe) and since 1966 it has allowed its citizens the right of
individual petition enabling them to take the government to the European Court
of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The Blair Government incorporated the provisions
of the European Convention in UK domestic law in 2000 so that citizens can now
seek to have the provisions enforced in domestic courts.
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 blogs can say what they want about politicians and political
issues. I have a web site and a blog 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 has been a growing movement for more fundamental
reform. The appetite for constitutional change became much stronger in the
aftermath of the May 2009 scandal over the expenses of Members of Parliament.
Then the formation in May 2010 of a Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition
Government opened up new possibilties for change with a number of specific
measures set out in the agreement between the parties establishing the new
government.
The proposed changes on the agenda of the current Coalition
Government are as follows:
- More power to
backbench Members of Parliament - In the British political
system, the party in Government has considerably more power in the
legislature than the Opposition parties and in all the political parties
the whips have considerable power over backbenchers. Ordinary MPs could be
given more influence by measures such as more independent and stronger
all-party Select Committees, more unwhipped votes (especially during the
Committee Stage of Bills), more support for Private Members' Bills (those
initiated by backbenchers rather than Ministers), more power to scrutinise
Government spending, and a new power to subject ministers to confirmation
hearings. The parties will bring forward the proposals of the Wright
Committee for reform to the House of Commons in full - starting with the
proposed committee for management of programmed business and including
government business within its scope by the third year of the Parliament.
- The power to
force a by-election - Currently a by-election
occurs only when an MP dies or resigns or is sentenced to more than one
year in prison. The Government has published a Bill proposing that a
by-election could be forced if 10% of eligible constituents - around 6,800
in a typical constituency - voted for a recall. The ousted Member of
Parliament would be free to stand for re-election. However, the proposal
has been criticised on the grounds that the recall peitition would only be
triggered by a vote of no confidence in the House of Commons or a prison
sentence.
- Fixed term
parliaments -
In the past, elections to the House of Commons had to be held within five
years of the previous General Election but the Prime Minister had complete
discretion over the actual date which was often the subject of
considerable speculation and frequently a year or more before an election
was legally necessary. The coalition parties agreed to the establishment
of five year fixed-term parliaments and the necessary legislation has now
been enacted. Therefore, subject to at an earlier time either a vote of no
confidence in the Government or a two-thirds majority vote, each General
Election will now be held on the first Thursday of May five years after
the previous election.
- A new electoral
system for the House of Commons - Britain is unusual in
Europe in having an electoral system which is 'first-past-the-post' (FPTP)
and there are advocates for a system of proportional representation (PR),
versions of which are already used for elections to the Scottish
Parliament, the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly and for
British elections to the European Parliament. As a vital component of the
coalition agreement, legislation was carried to enable a referendum to be
held on an electoral system called the alternative vote (AV) which enables
the voter to number candidates in order of preference and requires a
winning candidate to secure more than 50% of the votes which, if not achieved
on the first count, is achieved through successive withdrawal of the
lowest-polling candidate and redistribution of that candidate's
preferences. The referendum - only the second UK-wide referendum in our
history - was held on 5 May 2011, but the current electoral system was
supported by a margin of more than two to one (I voted for a move to AV).
- Fewer and more
equal sized constituencies - Currently the House of
Commons has 650 seats; the Coalition Government intends to cut this to
600. Currently the number of electors in each Parliamentary constituency
varies quite considerably; the Coalition Government has legislated that no
constituency should be more than 5% either larger or smaller than a
national average of around 76,000 electors (which could eliminate some 40
Labour-held seats). The Government included these measures in the
Referendum Bill on electoral reform and it is intended that the new
constituencies will come into effect at the next General Election.
- Election of the
House of Lords -
At present, no member of the upper house is actually elected; most are
appointed on the nomination of party leaders with a small number remaining
from the originally much larger group of hereditary peers. The Government
has outlined two initiatives: first, a draft House of Lords Reform Bill
that would reduce the membership from over 800 to 300 of whom 80% would be
elected by the single transferable vote form of proportional
representation and, second, a White Paper containing proposals for a 100%
elected upper house. Both proposals are to be scutinised by a cross-party
committee of MPs and peers, but this examination will take at least a year
and neither the Commons nor the Lords is keen on either of the proposals
for very different reasons (MPs do not want the Lords to gain more
legitimacy and nominated peers do not want to be replaced by elected
representatives).
- More devolution
nationally and locally - The Scottish Parliament,
the Welsh Assembly and the Northern Ireland Assembly all have devolved
powers and all of them want more, while many local authorities feel that,
over past decades, their powers have been eroded by the national
parliament. Some believe that a revitalisation of the British political
system requires more devolution of power. The parties have agreed to the
implementation of the Calman Commission proposals on further Scottish
devolution and the offer of a referendum on further Welsh devolution. Also
the parties intend to promote the radical devolution of power and greater
financial autonomy to local government and community groups. This will
include a full review of local government finance.
- Use of
e-petitions -
Citizens are to be encouraged to use the Government web site Direct.gov to
create electronic petitions to promote specific political reforms. It is
likely that the most popular petition will be drafted as a Bill and
presented to Parliament, while those petitions that reach a certain level
of support - probably 100,000 signatures - will be guaranteed a debate in
the House of Commons.
- Funding and
lobbying -
All political parties find it difficult to raise the funding necessary to
promote their messages and run their election campaigns and, in practice,
the Labour Party receives much of its funding from a small number of trade
unions and the Conservative Party is backed mainly by large companies. It
has been argued that democracy would be better served and parties could be
more independent if there was public funding of political parties with the
actual level of funding depending of some combination of candidates and
votes. The parties have agreed to pursue a detailed agreement on limiting
donations and reforming party funding in order to remove 'big money' from
politics. Also the parties intend to tackle lobbying through introducing a
statutory register of lobbyists.
Candidates for further change would include the following
proposals:
- A wider
franchise -
At present, every citizen over 18 can vote but it has been suggested that
the voting age should be lowered to 16.
- A wider process
for selecting Parliamentary candidates - Today candidates are
selected by meetings of members of the political party that the candidate
will represent in a future election, but it has been proposed that the
process could be opened up to anyone in the relevant constituency who has
declared themselves a supporter of that party, a process something like
the primaries in the United States.
- A more modern
culture for the Commons - Many of the traditions and
much of the language of the Commons date back centuries and reformers argue
that it is time for change to make the proceedings more accessible and
acceptable to the public and electorate. The sort of changes mooted are no
ceremonial dress for Commons staff, reform of terms such as "My right
honourable friend" and a less gladiatorial version of Prime
Minister's Questions.
- Limits on the
Royal Prerogative - At the moment, the Prime
Minister alone can exercise powers which once used to belong to the
monarch, such as the right to apppoint certain judges and bishops, the
signing of international treaties, and the declaring of war, but this
could be changed so that Parliament has to decide such matters.
- A domestic Bill
of Rights -The
UK has a Bill of Rights but it is the European Convention on Human Rights
which, since 2000, has been part of the domestic law and therefore
enforcable in national courts as well as the European Court. Some people
believe that Britain should draft its own specific Bill of Rights.
- A written
constitution -
For historical reasons, the UK is one of only three countries in the world
not to have a written constitution (the others are New Zealand and
Israel). The most radical proposal for constitutional change - supported
especially by the Liberal Democrat Party - is that the country should now
have a formal written constitution, presumably following some sort of
constitutional convention and possibly a referendum.
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