Political life Look at theextract from a fictio na ldiaryon thenex tpage0The killer instinct},Itistaken from the bookofYes,Prime Minister, a verypop ular radioandtelevisioncomedyofthe I9
Trang 166 5 Attitude s
Carryon laughing
In t hehistory of Bnushco medy, the re is a specia l place for t he Co rry
On series of fi lms Starting i n t he l ate
19 50S and continu ing i nto t he m id 1970s there were twe nty-n ine Ca rry
O n lms A ll of them used t he s ame for mul a (a nd always w ith m o re o r
l ess th e s ame se t of act ors) : aw
ell-kno wns truauonor p lace (a hospital.
the army, th e B r iti sh e mpire in Ind i a) p eopled with ab surd charac
-te rs who se dial o g ue c o nsists of almost n oth ing b ut pu ns r elating t o sex or t o ile ts.
Nevertheless they beca me ove r the rears, an esse ntial pa rto f B ritish
culture Anybody who went to se e a
CenyOn fil m knew e xactly wh at sort
of thing to expect Thispred ictability
in fact was part of the enjoyme nt, The jo kes, so obvious and co ntinu-ous , could of ten be s potted by th e aud ience be'fore (hey came.
QUESTIONS
nearl yhalf of the scho o ls in the countr y Why' Themost com mon reason was that teachers Sim ply felt too embarrassed totackle the
s ubject Similarl y publi c r eference s t o sex in p opular e ntertainme nt
areverycommon, buttheytypicallytakethefo rm ofjoking innuendo
and clumsydouble-entendreeo>Carry an laughing andseechap te r 23)
The s ame mixtur e o f tol erance and e m barrassment c an be see n in
theofficial attitude to prostitutionin Britain.Itisnot illegal tobea prostitute in Britain,but it sillegal o publicly behavelikeone.Itis
against the law to 'solicit'-thatis,to do anything in publicto
find customers,
Aposter advertisinga'Carry On' film
I F requent mention is made in this chapter of
Britishindividualism Howman y examples of
thiscan yo u find?Can youthin k of any others'
2 It has beensaid that the Britisharesuspicio us of thingsin publiclife which are logicalor system-atic Canyo u find examplesin this chap ter which could beused to su ppo rt thisopinion ?
3 Imagin e thi s s ituatio n: y ou are at h ome just
about to have lunch, when there isa knock at the door.Itisa Britishfriend ofyours , not a very
clo se fri end but closer than a mere acquaint-ance , He o r he has come to pay you an unexpected vi s it You suggest that yo ur friend
comesinandstays for lunch But your friend is embarrassed to find thathe orshehas called at
SU G G ES T IONS
a mealtime and refuse s th e invitation , You want
to persuade your friend tochange hisor her
mind , Here are tw o po ssible ways o f d oing this:
A Pleosestcy Wedan't have much,I'm afraid, but we'd
be honoured, Whate ver w e han i s y ours
BIt'sno trouble at all There'splentyaf food.Don'tthink twice about it We'reused topeoplepopping in Whichof thesetwod yo uthink wouldbea
m ore s uccessful wa y to p ersuade a Briti sh
person ?A or B?Why?
4 Which (if any) of the Briti sh characteristics
describedin this chapter wouldyou regard as
alsocharacteristicof peoplein yourcountry'To
w hatextent?
• GeorgeMikes 'humorous booksaboutthe English, sucha How to be
anAlien ,Howtobe Inimitable and How to be Decadent Callpublish edb Penguin) are easyand fun to read.Asthey span thirty years,
together they offer insightsinto changing attitudes in Britain
• Read Notes from aSmall Island b Bill Bryson ,a humoroustour
round Britain b y an American wh o li ved there for man y ye ars.
Trang 2Political life
Look at theextract from a fictio na ldiaryon thenex tpage(0)The killer
instinct},Itistaken from the bookofYes,Prime Minister, a verypop ular
radioandtelevisioncomedyofthe I980s Like all political satire,this
program mecould onlyhave been popular because peoplebelieved
thatitwas,at eastpartly,a truereflection of reality.It therefore
illustrates theBritish atti tudetopoliticians and politics
The public atti tude to politi cs
P oliticians inBritaindonot have a good reputa tio n T o des cr ibe
someone who is not a professiona l politician as 'a po litician ' is t o
criticize him o r her, suggest ing a lac kof trustworthiness,It i s n o t tha t
people hate theirpoliticians Theyjustrega rd them witha high
degreeofsus picion.Theyd no texpe ctthemto becorr uptor touse
t heir po sition L a am ass personalwealth, but t hey d oexp ect them to
be frequentlydishonest.Peopleare not really shoc kedwhe n the
governmentiscaught lying.On the other hand ,theywould be very
shocked indeedif itwasdiscovered thatthe govern mentwasdoing
anythingactuallyillegal Ascandalsuch asthe Watergateaffair in the
USAin the early t 970 Swould endanger thestability of the wholeof
political life
Atan earlierpoint in the'diary', Jim Hackeris wonderingwhythe
P rime M inister hasresign ed H e do es n ot be lieve th e T umour tha t
£I million w orth of d iamond s h av e b een found in t h e Prim e Mini
s-ter'shou se.Thisispartly,no doubt ,becau sehe doesnot thinkthe
P rime M inister coul d b e so co rrupt bu t i t is al so be cause 'i t's n ever
beenofficially denied Thefirstrule ofpoli tics is NeverBelieve
AnythingUntil It'sBeen OfficiallyDeni ed'.Thi sis the basisof the
joke in the two co nversatio ns in the extrac t Dunc an and Er ic a re
only sure thatJim wantstobe Prime Ministerafterhe impliesthat
he doesn't '
Thelack of enthusiasmforpoliticians may be seen in thefactthat
s urveys h ave show n a ge ne ral ignoranc e o f w ho the y ar e More than
halfof the ad ults in Britaindo not know thename of theirlocal
Mem berof Parliament (MP), even thou gh there isjust one of these
for each area, and quite a high proportio nd not even know the
names of the important governme n t mi ni s ters or le aders of t he m ajo r
political parties
Trang 368 6Political life
The kill er instinct
In this extract fromYes, Prime Minister, the Prime Minister has just resigned
There are two candidates to be the new Prime Min ister, Eric Jeffries and Duncan Short, both of them minis-ters in the present government.
Another minister, J im Hacker, also wants the job He has recently learnt some scandalous i n form ation about events i n the pasts of the other two candidates so now he has the oppor-tunity to make them withdraw.
Here is an extract from his diary.
I toldDuncanth at some information hadcome my way.Serious
infor m atio n.Todo with his personal financialoperat ions Ireferre dto
the collapseofContinental and Genera l
He arguedtha tthere was nothi n g improperabout that Irepliedthat technically there wasn't,but if you lookedat it in conjunctionwitha similar case at OffshoreSecu rit ies I indicatedthat Ifhe stayed in the
run ning for PMI,I would be obliged to sharemy knowledgewithseni or membersofthe part y,th eFraud Squad,andso forth The Americans wouldalso haveto know AndHer Majesty
Hepanic ked 'Hangon!Financialmatterscan be misinterpreted.'
Isippe dmydrinkand waited.It didn'ttake long He said that he didn' treally want Number Ten! atalLHe felt that the Foreign Office was a much better jobinman y ways 'Bur Iwon'tsupport Eric!' he
insisted hotly
'How wou lditbeif youtransferredallyour support to someone else?'Isuggesred
Du ncanlooked blank.'Who?' 'Someonewho recognizedyour qualities.Someone who'd want you
to stay on asForeign Secretary.Someone who would be discreetabou t ContinentalandGeneral.Someone you trust.'
Gradually,Isawitdawnin g uponhim.'Do youmean- eyou?' heasked
Ipreten dedsu rprise 'Me?Ihave absolutelyno ambitions inth at
direct ion.' 'Youdo meanyou,' he observed quietly He knowsth e code
*
I told EricwhatIknew He went pale 'But you said you weregoing to helpme get elected Prim e Minister.'
I pointed out that my offertohelp him was before my knowledge of
theshady ladyfrom Argent ina Andothers.'Loo k, Eric, as party Ch air-man I have my duty It wouldbe a disaster for the party if youwerePM
andit came out.Imean , I wouldn 't careto explainyour privatelife to
HerMajesty, wouldyou ?' 'I'll with draw ,' hemu ttered
I toldhimreassuringlythatIwou ldsay no moreabout it To anyone
He th ankedme nastilyand snarle dthat he supposed thatbloody
Duncanwouldnow get Number Ten 'Not if!can helpit,' Itold liim
'Who then ?'
I aisedmyglass tohim,smiled and said,'Cheers.'
The pennydrcppeds.Sodidhislow er jaw 'You don'tmean-you?'
Again I put on my surprisedface 'Me?'I said innocently 'Our chil-drenareapproachingtheage when Annie and I are thinkingof spending
muchmore timewitheach other.'
He unde rstoodperfectly.'Youdomean you.' Adapted from Yes , Prime Min ister by Jonathan Lynn and Antony Jay.
I PM i s short f or 'Prime Minister'
2 Number Ten D ow ni ng Street is where the Prime Minister lives
1 He fina lly un ders tood (that Hacker intended to be PM).
Trang 4The Br itish ", 'erenota lwa ys so u nenthu s ia s ti c In ce nturie s pa st , it
wasa maximof gentlemen'sclubs thatnobody shouldmentionpolit
-icsor religion in politeconversation.If anybodydid,there wasa
danger that theconversation would become too heated, people
would become bad-temperedandperhapsviolent However, there
hasbeenno realpossibilit yofa revolution or even ofaradical change
in the s ty l e ofg overnmen t for a lmost two cent uries now T hi s s t a b ility
isnow generallytaken forgranted Mostpeoplerarely seeany reason
to become pa ssio nate abou t p o lit i es and no body r egards i t a s a 'da
n-gero us ' t op ic o f co nversatio n The y ar e m o re lik e ly to regard it a s a
b oring t o pic o f co nversation ! How ever, thi s l a c k ofen thus iasmis n ot
the sameas complete disenchantm ent.Three-quartersoftheadult
popu lation are i ntere st ed eno ugh in p oli tics to vote at n ational elec
-tion s, even though voting is no t co mp ulsory Th ere i s a gene ral feeling
of confidence in thestability andworkabilityofthe system
Y es, Prime Mini ster i s j ust one of ma ny programmes an d publication s
devoted to political satire All of them are consistentlyand bitingly
c ritical Moreo ver, their critici sm i s typicall ynotabout particular
policies but isdirected at the attitudesof politicians ,theiralleged
dishonestyand disloyalty, andat the generalstyle ofpolitical life
(to>Figuresoffun) Given this, you might thin kthatpeople wouldbe
veryangry, thatthere would be loud dem and s that the systembe
cleaned up, even public demonstrations Notatall' The lastdem on
-strations aboutsuch matterstook place150 yearsago You migh talso
thin k thatthepoliticiansthem selveswould be worriedabout the
n ega tive pictur e t hat t hese s atires p aint o f hem F ar from it ! O n the
back coverofthe 19 89 editionofYes ,PrimeMinis terthere isa tribute
from Margaret Thatcher,the realPrime Minister of thecoun try
throughou tthe 19 80s.In it, she referstothe book's'closelyobserved
portrayal of what goeson in the corridorsof power' (suggesting it is
accurate) and how thisportrayalhas given her'hoursof pure joy'
In Britainit is generallyaccepted that politicsis a dirtybusiness,a
necessary evil Therefore, politiciansmakesure that they do not appear
tookeentodo the job.They seethemselvesasbeingpoliticians out
of a sense of publicduty.Thatis why, in the extract ,Jim Hacker does
n ot adm it t hat h e a ctually wan ts to be Prim e Ministe r Ericand Dun can,
and Jim himself, allknow and accept thattobethe PrimeMinisteris
the ultimate goal ofmostpoliticians.But forJim Hackerto admitthis
o pen ly , e ven i n pr ivate c o nversat i on, w ou ld m ak ehims ee m dang
er-ouslykeenon powerforits ownsake
Th e s tyle of dem ocracy
The Brit isharesaidtohave a high respect forthe law.Althoughthey
may not have much respectfor thepresentinstitut ionsofthelaw
(see chapter 1I),thisreputationis more orlesstrue withrespectto
the principle oflaw Of c o urse ,lots of crimes are committed , as in an y
other country,but there is littlesystematic law-breakingbylarge
Th e style of democracy 69
Collector s' i tems?
An indicatio n of the poor reputation
of politic ians in Britain is thevalue
of their signatures Autographs can sometimes be worth qui tea l otof money - but not those of most poli-ticians Even thoseof P rim e
Ministers are not very valuable In
19 92 the signatureo f M argaret
Tha tcher, Prime Ministerthro ugh
-out the 19805, wa s w orth £75 if accompanied by a p oto graph; the
s ignatur eo f J ohnMajo r P rim e Min-ister at the time, w as w o rth £20;
tho se of other recent Pri m e Minis-ters wer e worth even less The one exception was Winston Churchill.
His Signed photograph was said to
be wort h £ I ,000.
F igure s offun Spitting Image was an example of
tele-vi sio nsatire It was a programme 'whichs ho we dpuppets of w ell-known public fig ures speaking in fictional s i tuat ions in order to make fun of them Not e that the figures
we re not naturalistic Instead , they
w eremore likecar tocns , grot-esquel y em phasizi ng certain features The S pittingI mage format was co pied in other European
cou n trtes.
The 'SpittingImage' puppetofMorgoret Thatcher(Prime Minister 1979-91 )
Trang 570 6Politicallife
~ Official secrets
In 1992 the ex istence o fM I6 , the British Secre t Service, was publi cly
admitted by the government for the first time Nobody was surprise d.
Everybody already knew that there was a secret service, and t hat its name was M I6 But the admissi on
itse lf was a surprise B ritish g overn -ments do not like public re velations
of their activities, e ven if these a re
no l on ger secret ( In t his case, the reason for the new openness was that, w ith the cold w ar over, MI6 had to start justifyin g w hy it needed money from taxpayers.)
For years during the 198 0s, for instance , the governme nt su
ccess-fully prevented the pub lication in Britain of the boo k Sp ycc tcher ( the mem oirs of an MI6 a gent) even though, by the end o f t he de cade,
it had a lready been pub lished i n several other countries a nd co uld
therefore not contain a ny g enui ne secrets Eventually , in 199 1, t he European C ourt rule d t hat p ublica
-tion shou ld be allowed in Br itain
too
sectionsofth e population.For example, tax evasionisno t thenational
pastim e thatit is saidto be in somecountries
How ever , while'thelaw ' as a concept islargely respected , the
B tish are comparativelyunenthusiasticabout makingnew laws
The generalfeeling is that, wh ileyouhave to havelaws some times , whereverpossible it isbesttodo withoutthem.In manyaspectsof
lifethecountryhascomparativelyfew rulesandregulatio s.This
lackof regulatio nworks both\vays.Just asther eare comparati vely
fewrul es telling the individualwhat heorshe must or mustnotdo,
so the re are compara tivelyfew rulestelling thegovernmentwhati can or cannot do Tw o uniqueaspectsof Britishlifewill makethis
clear
First, Britain is one ofthe veryfew European countrieswhose citizensdo nothaveidentity cards Beforethe 197 05 ,whe ntour ism
to foreign coun triesbecamepopular (andsothe holdin gofpassports became more common), mostpeopl ein the country wentthrou gh
lifewithouteverowning a documentwhosemain purposewas to
identify them Britishpeople arenot obliged to carryidentific tio n with them.You do not even have tohave yo urdrivin g licencewith
you in your car If thepoliceasktosee it,youhavetw enty-fourhour s
to takei tothem ! Second,ando the otherhand, Britain (unlike some other
coun-triesinwesternEurope) doesnot have a Freed o m ofInforma tion
Act.There isn law which obliges a govern mentautho rity or agency
to show you what informationit has collected about you In fact, it goesfur ther thanthat.There isa law (calledthe Official Secre tsAct)
which obli ges man govermnent em ployees nottotella yoneabout
thedetailsoftheir work It SeeITISthatin Brita in, bothyo urown
ide ntity and the informationwhich thegovernmenthasabout your
ide nti tyareregarded as, in a sense,privatematters
These tw oaspectsarec aracteristic ofthe relationship in Britain
betw eentheindivid ual andthestate.To a largedegree,thetraditional
assumption is thatbothsho uld leave each otheraloneasmuchas
possible,The dutiesof the individualtowardsthe state are co nfined
tono t break ing the law andpaying taxes.There isn nation alservice (militaryor otherwise);peoplearenot obligedtovoteatelectons
if theycan'tbebo th ered ; people do not havetoregistertheirchange
of addresswithany government authoritywhe nth y ITIOVehouse
Similarly the governmen tin Britainhas a comparativelyfree hand
It wouldbe correct to call the country'ademocracy'in the gen era lly
accepted sense of th isword But in Britainthisdemocracyinvolves
less participation by ordinary citizens in governing andlaw m aking
thani d es in many othercountries.Thereisnoconceptof these
things beingdone'b the people'.If thegovernm ent wants tomake
a importantchangein th eway that thecount ry isrun- to change ,
fo r example,theelectoralsystem or the powers ofthePrim e M
inis-ter- itdoes not haveto askthe people It doe snotevenhavetohave
Trang 6a special vote in Parliamenl withan especially high pro portio n ofMPs
in favour It just needs to get Par liament t o agree in the s ame way as
for any new law (see chapter9)
I n many countries an importan t const itutional change cannot be
made without a referendum in wh ich everybody in the co untry has
the chance to vote 'yes' or 'no' I n ot her co untries, s uch as t he U SA,
people oftenhave the chancetovoteon parti cularproposals for
changing lawsthatdirectly affect their everyday life onsm o king in
public places orthelocatio of a new hospit al,for example Nothing
like this happ en sin Britain.Therehasonlybeenone coun trywi de
referendumin British histo ry (in 1975, onwhetherthe coun try
shou ld s tay i n the E uropeanCom m unity) In Br itain dem o cracy ha s
never meant that the people havea handin the runningof the
country ; rat her i t means t hat t he p eopl e choose w ho is to gove rn the
country, and then let them get on with it!
T he constitution
Britain is a constitutional monarc hy That means it is a cou ntry
gov-erned by a king or queen who acceptsthe advice of a parliament It
is a lso a par liamentary democr acy Th at is , t is a coun try w hose
governmenl is controlled byaparliamentwhich hasbeen electedb
thepeop le.Inotherwords , thebasic system isn tsodifferent fro m
a nywhere e lse in E uro pe The h igh est p o sit i on s i n t h e g over nment a re
filledb member s ofthe directlyelectedparliament.InBritain, asin
man y Eur op ean c o untries, t he official head o f s t ate , whe ther a
monarch(asinBelgiu m ,the Netherlands and Denmark) orap
resid-ent (as in Germany,Greece and Italy) haslittle realpow er
Howe ver, there are features o f th e B ritishsystemof g overnm ent
which make it different fro m th at i n ot her count ries a nd wh ich a re
not 'modern'at all.The most notableof these isthequestion of the
constitution Britain is almost alone among modern s tates i n tha t it
does not have 'a constitution ' a t all O f cou rse, there are r ules, regula
-tions, principlesand proced ures forthe running of thecountry- all
the thi n gsthatpoli tical scientists andlegal expertsstu dy andwhich
are k now n c ollect ively as 't he c o nstitutio n' But th ere i s n o s ingle
written docum ent whichcan beappealedto asthehighestlaw ofthe
land andthefinalarbiterin any matter ofdispute.Nobody can refer
to 'art icl e 6' or 'th e fir st a m endment' or anyt h i ng lik e th at, b ecau se
no thi ng like that exists
Instead ,theprincipl es and proceduresby whichtheco unt ry is
governe d andfrom whichpeople's rightsarederi vedcomefro m a
num ber ofdifferent sources They have been builtup,bi b bit, over
t he centur ies Some of them ar e wr itten d ow n in laws ag reed b y
Parliament, some of them h ave b een s po ken and t hen w ritten d o w n
(judgements m ade in a court) a nd some of them have never been
written down at all For exa mp le the re i s no w ritten l aw in B ritain
t hat says anythi ng about who ca n be the P rim e M iniste r or what the
Theconstitution 7 I
Trang 77 6Politicallife
II> The pa iring system
The pairing system is an e xcellent examp le of the habit of co- o pera-tion among po litic al pani cs in Britain Un der this system , an MP of one pany is 'paired' wit h a MP of ano ther party When there is go ing
to be a vote in the Ho use of Commons, and thet woMPs know that they would vote o n oppo site sides , neitherof thembot her to turn
up for the vote In thi s w ay , the dif -ference in numbers between on e side and the othe r is m aintaine d,
w h ile the MPs are free to gel on w ith other work The system works vcry well There is hardly ever any 'cheati ng'
powers of the Prime M inis ter are, even though he or she is probab ly
the most powerful person in the country Similarly, there is no single written document w hich asserts peop le's rights.Somerights which are co mmonly accep ted in modern democracies (fo rexample,t he rights not to be discrim inated agains t o n the basisof sexor race) have
been formallyreco gn izedby Parliamentthrough legislation; but
others (for example, the rights no t to be discriminated against on the basis of religion or po liticalviews)have not Never the less, it is understood that these latter rights are also part ofth econstitu tion.
Despite recent changes su ch as the televisingof Parliament,po litica l
lifein Britainis still in flu enced by the traditionalBritishrespect for privacy and love of secrecy It is also comparativelyinformal In both
Par lia men t and government there is a tendency for impo rtant decis ions to be taken , not at official pub lic mee tings, or even at pre-arranged privatemeetings,but a t lunch, or over drinks, or in chance encounters in the corrido rs of power It used to be s aid that the Ho use
of Commonswas ' the mostexclusive club in L on don ' And indeed ,
th ere areman yfeatures of Parliamentwhich causeismembers (MPs)
to feelspecialand to feela specialsense of belongingwitheach
other,even amongth o se who have radicallyopposed political ph ilo
-sophies First, cons titu tio naltheorysays that Par liament has absolute con tro l over its own affairs and is, in fact, the highest power in the
land Second, herearethe ancie nt traditionsof procedure (see chapter9).Many oftheseserve to remindMPs of atim e whenth e
main d i vision i n politics was not betw een this party and that party
butrath erbetw eenPar liam entitself andthemonarch Even the archi -tecture of the Palace of Westminster (thehome of bothHo u ses of Parliam ent ) contributes to thisfeeling Itis so confusing that on ly 'insiders' can possiblyfindth eir way around it
Thesefeatu res, togethe rwith th e long years of politicalstability,
have l ed to a genuine habi t of co-operation among politicians of
differ ent parties.When youhear politicians argu in g in the Houseof Com monsor in a televisionstudio, you mightth in k that they hate eachother This is rarely the case.Often theyare good frien d s An d
even when i t is the case, bo t h no rmally see the practical advantage of
co-operation Th e advantageis thatverylittle time is wastedfighting about how poli tical bus inessis tobe con ductedfairly Forexample,
the order o f business in Parliament is arrange d by representatives of
the parti es beforeh andsothatenough timeis givenfor the various
po i nts of view to be expressed Another example is televisio n adve rt -ising B y agreement, po litical parties are no t allowed to buy time on
te lev isio n Instead, each p arty is given a strict amoun t of t ime, wi th
the two biggest part iesgettingexactly equal amounts.A veryno tab le exam pleisth e system of ,pairing 'ofMPs (I>Thepairing system)
Trang 8A guid e to British political partie s
Conser vativeparty
~
4' CONSERVATIVE
• H istory: develo ped from the g ro up o f
a nd s t ll o ften known inf o r m a ll y by
tha t n ame (es pecially i n n ew spa per s,
b ecause i ta kes up l ess s pace').
• Tr uduioncl ou tlook: right o f c ent re;
m inimal gove rnment inte rfere nce i n
-c alion, w elfare h o usin g a nd m any
pub lic se rvic es d esigned to i nc rease
cons u me r-cho ice a nd ! o r to intro
o per a tio n.
• Organization:leader has relati vel y great
d egr ee o f reedom to d i rect po li cy
• L eader( May2002) : lain Du ncan Sm ith
• V oters: th e ri che r sectio ns o f s o cie ty,
p lu s a large m inor it y of t he ' o rking
cl asses.
busi-n ess p eop l e
Natio nalist partie
Both Plaid Cyrn ru (' pa rty of Wale s' in
th e Wel s h la nguage ) and t h e S NP
(Sco msh Nat i o nal P art y ) fi ght f or
d evo l uti on of gove rn me ntal p owers.
Man y f t he ir m ember s , e s pecia lly in
th e SN P, a re willing t o co nsi d er t o tal
ind ependence from t h e UK B oth
p art ie s h ave us ua lly h ad a f ew MP s at
W es tmin s ter in t h e la st fi fty y ears, b ut
we ll u nd e r ha lf o f t he t ot al n u m be r s of
M P s f o m t heir re s p ective co u n t r ies.
• H i s t or y : f or me d a t the be gin ning
o f the t wentiet h c ent ur y from a n
all ian ce o f tr ade u nio nists and
in 1 9 2 3
• T raditional o tlook: l ef t o f centre ; s t an ds
for e qua lity, fo r th e w e ak er p eop l e
i nvolvement i n t he eco no my; m or e
co nce rned to pr o vide f u ll socia l se r
l oo se r link s wit h t ra d e uni o ns ( sec
c hap te r I S ")
• Orga nization: in th eor y, poli cie s h ave t o
be a p prove d b y a nnual conf eren ce ;
in p ract ice l ead er ha s more p ow er
th an t h i s implie s
• L eader( M zoozlTo ny B la ir
m iddl e -cl a ss i nt elli g ent si a
u ions.
Partie in Nort h ern Ireland
P arti es h ere n orm ally repre sent
e ith e r t h e Pr o te st ant or t he Ca th oli c
com m u nitie s (see ch apte r 4): Th er e
i s o ne la rg e co m parat ive ly mo d erat e
part y 0 11 e ach s id e ( th e P rot estant
Ul ste r Uni o ni s t s an d the Ca tholi c
So cial D em o cratic a nd Labour P art y)
and one or mor e o the r partie s of
m ore e x t reme v iew s o n ea ch s i d e ( f o r
e xampl e, th e Pr o t es tant D em o cratic
Uni on i sts and t he C atholi c Sinn
F ei n ) T her e i s o ne pan y whi c h a k s
fo r sup port f ro m bo th c o m muniti es
- th e A lliance part y It h ad not , b y 2002,
w on an y se ats.
Libe ral Democratic party
Liberal Democrats
• Hi st o ry: f ormed in th e l ate 1 98 0 s fro m
a unio n o f the Liber als ( who
d eveloped fr o m t he W h i gs of t he earl y ninete enth ce nt ury) a nd the
g ro u o f La bo u r p oli tician s)
• P olicies: rega rde d as i n th e centr e o r
s lig h tly le ft of centre; has always
r-o n ment than othe r panics ; believes
• Leade r May2002): C ha rles K enn ed y.
• V oters: fr o m all classes, but mo re f ro m
the m id dl eclass
• M oney: p rivat e d onat i ons ( much
p oorer th an th e b ig two)
Otherparties There ar e numerous v ery sm all par ties,
s uc h a s t h e Gr een Par ty which i s su p·
p a n ed b y e nvi ro nmen tali sts T here is a
s m a ll p any whic h wa s f orm erly th e
Commun ist -part y an d a num ber o f
o the r le ft - Wing part ie s, a nd also a n
ex trem e r ig h t -W ing pa rty w hich i s
fai rly o pe n ly ra cis t (by mo st definitio n s
of t hai \vo rd) I t wa s p r ev io us ly ca lled
t he Na tional Front but s i nce t he 1 8 0s
ha s been c alled t he Brit ish N a ti o a l
n one of th ese par ties had w o n a Sing le
th e twenti eth ce n tu ry I n 1993.
o n a local council.
Trang 974 6Politicallife
Image matters
I n t he a geo f telev isio n.th e imp o r-tam:" o f t he perso nal i mage of a
p arty'sleader 1O i ts po litic al success
h as i ncreasedg reatly.Since 1 9 60 a
great change has ta ken pla ce with
regard to the families ofw p
politi-cia ns Before t hen the Briti sh p ub lic did not even know the na me o f th e Prime Minister 's wife T hese da ys , the wives of male pa ny l eaders a re well-known to the me dia, and their chi ld ren a re often feature d with
t hem i n photogra phs to s how wh at loving no rmal family men t he y ar e The B ritish sce ne h as n o t, at t he
t imeofwriung.r each ed t he le vel of absurd ity that it h as i n th e U SA
wh ere , [or exa m ple th e da ug hter of
J immy Carte r ( President 197 5-7 9)
wass uch a celeb rity t hat th e pre ss
o nce th o ugh t i tw orthwhilet o
r ep on t hat s he had b eentwelve
minutes late f o r sc ho o l!
Tony Blair with hi s wife and three old est c hildren out side Number 10 Donning S treet, the o fficial residence
o f the Prime Mini ster
Th e part y sys tem
Br itain is no rmally d escribed as h aving a 'two -party s ys t em ' Th is i s
beca use,since t 945,one ofthetwo big partieshas,b itself con
occupiedmorethan90%ofalloftheseats in the Houseof Commons,
Moreover ,thisisnot a peculiarlymodern phenomenon,Basicall ythe
s am e s ituatio n exi sted throughou t t he nin eteenth centur y, e xcept that
the Liberal s,rather than Labour,were one of thetwo bigparties,The Labour partywasformed at the start of thetwentiethcent ury and withinaboutthirtyyears hadreplaced the Liberalsin thisrole,
One rea son fo r the exi stence of this s ituatio n i s th e e lec toral sys tem
(see ch ap ter 1 0 ) ,The other isth e nature of the originof British
p oli tical parties Britain i s u nlike most other countri es in that i ts part ies were fir st ormed in side P arliament, and wereonl y later
Me mbe rsofParl iam e ntt ended to divide them selve s into t w o c amps ,
tho se who usuallysupporte d thegovernmentof thetime andtho se
who usually did not Duringthe ninetee nthcenturyi gradually
p resented i tself a s an alter native gover nment Thi s i dea o f a n a
lternat-i ve gove rnme nt ha s eceived l e g al r ecogni tion Th e leade r o f th e
th e impor t ance ofthisrol e He o r he ch ooses a 's hadow ca bine t',
ther eb ypresenting th e imag eofa team read yto fill the shoesofthe
gove rnme nt a t a mome nt's notic e.
As aresult ofthese origins , neitherparty existedsolel ytolo o kafter
were na tura lly mo re attr acted t o o ne of the two part ies tha n th e
certainbroad differen cesin th eir outlooksonlife , the two partiesdid
not existtopromotesingle, coheren tpoliticalphilosophies.The
ma in reaso n for t heir exis tence w as t o gain power by fo rming effec t ive coali tions of interes t-groups an d individual s.
Although the Labour partywasformed outsideParliament,and, as
its name i m plie s, did exist to p romote the inte rests of a particula r
group (the workingclass), it soon fitted into the established frame
-work.It isvery difficult for smaller parties to challengethe
goodid eas , these ideas tendto be adoptedby one of the threebiggest parties,who alltry to appealto aslarge a section of the population
as possible
The fact th atth epart y systemorigina ted insideParliament has
ot her consequences P arties d o n ot, as t hey d o i n man y other c o un-tri es, ex tend i nto eve ry a rea o f p ublic a ndsocial lifei n t he coun try.
U niversities , fo r exa m ple, e ach ha ve t he ir Co nservative , Labour a nd
Trang 10Liberal Democrat clubs, but whenthere is an election for officersof
the student union , il i s notnormallyfo ught according to nation al
party divi sion s The s ame i s true o f e lections w ithin trade unio n s ( see
chapter 15)
choiceof party leader.This doesnot meanthatthe parties are
poli cy i n a n umber of way s Fir st , they can make their views kn own
a t th e an nual part y co nference In thecase of thethre e main parti es.
thistakes placeinthe autu m n and lastsabout a week.Second ,the
localpartyhasthe powertodecide who is goingtobe the part y's
candidate for MP in its area at the next elect ion How ever, these
powers are limitedb yo ne im po rtant c o nsideration - th e appearance
ofunity Party policiesare alwayspresentedaspotentialgovernment
you don't wanttoshow the publicyourdisagreem ents.Party
confer-ences are always televised.As aresult they some timestend to be
s how cases whose main purpo se is n o t s o much 1O de bate imp o rtant
mattersastoboostthe spiritsof party membersand toshow the
public a dynamic,unified party.Similarly,iflocalpartymember s
it betrays disagreementandargume n t.Therefore , part ymem bersdo
notlikethishappeni ngandmostMPs canbe sure that their local
party will choosethem againat the next election (see chapte r 1I)
Duringthelastforty orso years, the tradition al confidence inthe
Britishpolitical system hasweakened In 19 50,Britain,despiteth
hardshipsof the SecondWorld War,could claim to be the richest and
most stable large countryin Europe.Collectively,its people seemed
to knowwhat theywanted and what they believed in.Theyseemed
tobesur e of themselves
Thisisn longer tru e Britain is often rated as one ofth
poores t large co untries in Europe , the policies of its governmen ts
havepulled inseveraldilTerent direction s, and its people tend to
be pessimisticabout the future ( t>Alossofconfidence).It isnow
un favourablyw ith so me o ther E urop ean coun try.
In thesecircumstances, it isquite possibletha tsome ofthe distinct
-ive characteristicsof British publiclife will change The matter of
identity cards is one areaof possible change The Britishhave always
been ratherproudof nothaving them.This hasbeen seenas proof
oftheBritish dedicationtoth rightsof the indi vidual It hasalso
help d to giveBritish people a feelingof beingdifferent Butwhat
T h e mode rn s itua t io n 7
II'- A loss of confidence
In 1991 , Prim e Mi nister John M ajor
r em arked o n hi s v isi ono f B r it ain
as 'a n atio n a t ease wi th it s el f ' ,
H owever an opini on poll pu blished
i n Fe bruary 1992 s ug gested that his
v isionw as not r eality O ver a t hou
-sa nd adult s wer e in terv i ewed
face-t o-facein 100 a reas t hro ughout
B ritain a nd were a sk ed a bo ut t heir
att itude sto various a spe ctso fl ifein the countr y In one s eries o f qu es-tions inter viewee swereasked
whe ther theywe repr o ud of c ertain
i ns titut io ns Here arc so m e o f the res ults o f t he poll , co m pared wi th the r esult s o f similar s ur v eys d on e 20-30 years bef ore
% agre ei ng
w ith
s tatemelH
1960 s 19 9 2 The Br itish monarch i s
The Br itish Parlia ment i s
s o me thin g to b e prou d o f 75 3
S-Th e Briti sh h ealth service is
The B riti s h education s ystem
is s omething ( 0 be pr oud o f 77 27
I n t he 1992 p oll , o nlys % o ft hose
a sked said that their pride in B ritain
a nd Briti sh ins ti tu tions had i ncreased
i nre centyears; 54 % s aid thati had dec reased.