Tài liệu Part 8- Britain ppt

ThehabitofSin gle-party government h s helpedtoestablish the ofth gove rnment, how ever junior, sharestheresponsibili tyfor eve r y po licy ma de by t he govern me nt... By convention,no

expression s of public sym pathy forthe Queen But when the

governmentannounced that public moneywasg ing topay for th

repairs,thesym pathy quicklyturned to anger The Queenhad

rece ntly been reported to be the ri chest wo m an i n the wo rld , so

peop ledidn 't see why she shouldn 't payfor them h rself,

I i s , i n f act, o n t he sub ject o f In on ey th at' an ti- roya list ' opinio ns

are mo st often expressed I n the early nineties even s ome Conservat

-ive MPs,traditionally stro ngsuppo rtersof themonarchy, started

prote sting at h ow much th e royal fam il y wa s cost ing t he country

Forthe who leof her longreign Elizabeth II had beenexem pt from

taxati on BUl, a s a resp onse LO the change in attitude, the Queen

decided tha t he would s tart pa y ing taxe s on he r pri vate income I n

add ition, Civil Li st p aym ent s to some membe rs of the royal fam il y

werestopped (TheCivilList isthemoneywhich the Queen and

so meof herre latives get fromPar li am ent eac h y ear s othat theyc an

carry out theirpublic duu es.)

For mostpeople,the most no table event marking Queen

Eli zabeth's 40th anniv ersary was a te levi sion p rogrammeabouta ye ar

in her lifewhichshowed revealingdetailsof her private family life

In the followi ng year parts of Buckingham Palace were, for the first

time,openedfor public visits(to raise moneyto help pay for the

repairstoWindsor Castle) These eventsare perhapsan indicationof

the futureroyalstyle- alittle lessgrand, a little lessdistan t

QUESTION S

T he future of the monarchy 81 O ne's bum ye ar

The Sun is Bri tain's most popular dai ly n ewspaper (s ee chapter (8).

T his wa s i ts fr om p age headline a fter the Qu een h ad s poken o f 1992 as a n

onnus horribilis(Latin for ' a horrib le

ye ar') A s \ e ll as the se paration of

Ch arles a nd Dia na, 1 9 9 2 h ad

i ncluded t he fire at Windsor Castle

an d the news that Aus tralia was intendi ng to break its ties with the ' ol d country ' and become a republic.

T he headline uses the similarity

b etween'an nes'and 'anus' to make

a punof'b um '(which, i n colloquia l

B ritish Engli sh, c an m ean b ot h 'anus ' and 'h o r ri ble ') It al so m imics the s uppose d f reque nt usebyt he

Q ueenof t hep rono un 'one' to m ean ' ri me' The headline thus mixes the ery forma l-sounding' one' with the ery colloquial 'bum ' It is

imposs-ible to imagine that such a disres pectful (andunsympathetic)

h eadlin e cou ld havea ppeared in the

J 91)0S or 19605.

I Wh y d oes th e Br iti sh Pr im e M in ist ercontinue

La 'advi se' and 'reque st ' th e Queen, wh en

everybod yknowsthat he or she is really telling

her what to do ?

2 The attitude of the Britishpeopletowardstheir

royal familyhas changed overthe lastquarter

ofthe tw en tieth cent ury Inwhatwayhasit

changed ,and whatdemonstratesthatthere has

been achange'Whydo youthinkth is has

happened'

SUGGESTI O N S

3 Wouldyou advisethe Britishtoget ridoftheir

monarchy ?

4 Do y o u hav e a m onarch inyou rcountry,o r

so m eo ne whofulfilsasim ilarrole'Ifyou do ,

how doe s their po sition c ompare wi th that of

the British monarch' Ifyo u don't,do you think

yo ur co un trywouldbenefit frorn h aving a

figurehead whocould perform the functionsof

a m on arch ?

• The Queen and I by Sue Townsend(Mandarin) includeshumorous

charac teri zationsof the mainmembersoftheroyal fa m il y

• Booksabo ut the monarchyabound.Among them are: ThePrince of

Wales:ABiographyb JonathanDimbleby (Little,Brownand

Com pany) , TheQueen by Kenneth Harris(Orion),ElizabethR:The Role of

theMonarchy Todayby AntonyJay (BBC Book s) ,Diana,HerTrue Storyand

Diana,Her New Life,both byAndrewMorton (MichaelO'Mara Boo ks

Limited)

M inisters and depa r tments

M o st heads of governmentdepart

-mentshave the t itle 'Sec retary o f State' (as in, for exa m ple , 'Sec retary

of Statefo r t he E nviron men t') T he

m in ister in cha rgeo f B ritain 'sr l a -tions wi th the outs ide 'worl d is know n to e verybod y as t he 'Fo reign Sec retary' The one in c harge of l aw and order i nside the country is the ' Home Secre tary' The ir d epart -ments are called the Fo reign a n Common wealth O ffice and the

H o m e Office res pectively (t he words' exterior' an d 'interior' are not used) The wor ds 'se cretary' and 'office' reflect the his to ry of g o vern -ment i n Br itain in whi ch

gove rnme nt de partments were at one ti me pan of the dom estic

ar rangements of t he m onarch.

Another imp ortant pers on i s the 'C hancellor of t he E xchequer', who

is the headof theTreasu ry ( in ot her words a s ono f M i nisterof Fin ance)

8

The government

Who gove rn s Brit ain?When the media tal k a bout 'the governme nt ' they us ua lly m ean o neof twothi ng s The term 'the govermnent' can

b used toreferto allof thepoliti cian s who havebeenappointedb

themonarch (on theadvice ofthePrimeMinister )to helprungove rn

-ment departme nts(the reare several politician s ineach departm ent )

o r to take o n va riou s o ther spec i al respon sibilit i es, such as m anag in g

t he activ itie sof Parliamen t.There a re norma ll y abo u t a hund r ed

m em bersof'the go ver nm ent ' i n t h is sense Altho u gh t h e e are var i ou s r anks, each wi th t heir own t i tles(c-Ministers and d e partmen ts)

m em bersofthegovern me n t ar e usually kno wn as'miruster s' All

m in isters om e f r om the ra nk sofParliam ent ,mostofthem f rom th e

in E u rop e, i t i s are for a person from o utside P ar li ament to become

aminister (Andwhenthisdoeshappen , the p rson conce rnedis

quicklyfoundaseat inoneofthetwoHo uses.)

Th e o th e meaningoftheter m 'the govern n 1ent ' is m o re limi ted

Itrefers only to the mostpowerfulofthese politicians,namely the

P rime M ini s t er an d t he ot her me m b ers of t he cab ine t T h e e are

usuallyabouttwenty peoplein the cabine t (tho ughther earen rulesaboutthis).Mostof themarethe headsof th gov ernment

departments Partlyasa resultof the electo ral system (see chapter 1 ) ,Britain, unlike much of westernEurope,normally has 'single-party govern

-ment'.Inotherwords,allmembersofthe govern me nt belongto the sam epoliti calparty.Traditionally,Britishpoli ticians haveregarded

coali tion government(withseveral partiesinvolved) as abadidea

S in ce t he fo rmat i on of m o d ern poli t ical parties i n t he n in eteenth

century , Britainhashada tot alofonlytwenty-on e years ofcoalition governments (t9 15- 1922 and 1931-1945).Even when, for brief

per io ds in th 1970s,n Singlepartyhad a major ity ofseatsin th

Hou se of C ommo ns, n o coa li t io n w as f o rmed There wa s a ' mino r i ty g ov e rnme nt' instea d.

ThehabitofSin gle-party government h s helpedtoestablish the

ofth gove rnment, how ever junior, sharestheresponsibili tyfor

eve r y po licy ma de by t he govern me nt Th i s i s true eve n if, as is often

the case, he orshe did notplayany partin making it.ofcours e,

individualgovernm en t members may hold differentopinions, but

theyareexpec tedtokeeptheseprivate By convention,no member

ofthe govermn en t cancriticize government policy in public.Any

memberwhodoes somust resign

Obviou sly,no gov enunent wantsan importantmemberof its party

tostartcritic izing it Thiswouldlead todivisionsin the party.Ther

e-fore, the leading politicians in the governing party usually become

mem bers of the cabinet,where they are tiedto governmen t policy

by the convention of collectiveresponsibility

The cabine t meets once a weekandtakesdecision s about new

policies , theimplementationofexistin g policiesandthe runningof

the variou sgovernment departments Because all governmen t

membersmustbeseen to agree,exactlywho says what at these

meetingsisa closely guarde dsecret.Reportsare mad of themeetings

and circulat edtogovernmentdepartments.Theysum m arize the

topics discussedand thedecisionstaken , but they never referto

individualsor what theysaid

To help run the co m plicated machineryof a modern government,

thereis an organization called the cabine toffice.It runsa busy

com m un icatio n network, keeping minis tersin touch witheach other

and draw in g up the agendasfor cabine tmeetings It also does the

sam e thingsfor themany cabinetcommi ttees Thesecommitteesare

appointed by the cabinetto look into various matters in more detail

than theindividualmembersofth cabinet have thetime (or

knowledge) for Unlike members of ' the governmen t' itself.th

peopleon thesecommitteesare not necessarilypoliticians

Thepositionof a BritishPrime Minister (PM) is in direct contrastto

that ofthemonarch.Although the Queen appearstohave a great

deal of power,in reality shehasvery little The PM, onthe other

hand, appears notto havemuch powerbut in realityhas a very great

A cabinet meetinginprogre ss

Th e c abin et

The history of the cabinet is a good example of the tendency to secrecy

in British poli tics It starte d in the eighteenth century as an informal grouping of im portant ministers and officials of the royal household It had no formal recognition Officially speaking , the government was run

by the Privy Council, a body of a hundred or more people (including those belon gin g to 'the cabinet'), directly responsible to the monarch (but not to each other) Over the years, the cabinet gradually took over effective power .Ihe Privy C2.-11~cil is now a merely ceremonial organization with no power Among others, it includes all the present mini sters and the most important past ministers.

In the last hu ndr ed years, the cabin et has itself becom e mo re and more 'of ficial' and publicly recog

-nized It has also grown in size, and

so is now often too rigid and formal

a body to take the real decisions In the last fifty years, there have been uno fficial 'inner cabinets' (comprising the Prime Minister and

a few other im portant ministers) It

is thought that it is here, and in cabinet committees, that much of the re al decision-making takes place.

8 8The government

~ N o 10 Down ingStreet

Here i s an example o f the t raditiona l

es pecially imp ortant people Thei r

o fficial r esid ence doe s not have a

s pecia l n am e No r, from the o uts ide.

d oes it l ook s pecial It i s not e ven a

d etached h ou se! Insid e , though it i s muc h larg er than i t l ook s The

lives next d oor, at No I I , an d the

ch apter 10) at No 12 , s o that the

t han i t appear s S till there is

arrangement After the government

l oses an ele ction all three ministers have to throw out their rubbish and

wait f or the furniture vans to tu rn

up, ju st li ke anybody else moving house

Th e P M also has an o fficia l

c o unt ry r esidence to the west o f London, c lle d 'Chequers.

Th e ideal Prim eMinister

H ere i s another e xt r act (see chap ter

6) fr om Y es, Pr ime Mini ster the

polit-ic s atire It i s s ection of the private diar y o f a se n ior ci vil s ervant I n it

anoth er to p civil s ervan t , in which

t hey di scussed who should becom e

the n ew Prime Minister W hen h e

s ays ' experts' in the las t li ne he mea ns o f co u r se the civ il serv ants

theleader of thepartywiththelargestnumber ofMPs

Her Majesty'spoliticalservants Thetraditional phrase describes him

or her asprimusinter por" (Latinfor 'first amongequals') Butin fact

theother ministersarenot nearlyas powerful Thereareseveral

reasons forthis First,the monarch'spowers of patronage(the power

are ,by convention ,actually thePM 'spowers ofpatronage.The fiction

isthattheQueen appo ints peop leto government jobs 'onthe advice

ofthePrim e Minister'.But what actually happens isthatthe PM

simplydecides Everybodyknowsthis.The mediado not evenmake

thepreten cethatthePM has successfullypersuaded the Queen to make a particularappointme nt , the y simplystate thathe orshe has made anappo intment

The stren thofthePM'spowerofpatro nage isapparent fromthe

modern phenom enon knownasthe'cabinetreshuffl e ' Forthepast

th irtyyearsi hasbeenthehabitofthePM to changehisorhercabinet quitefrequ ently(at leastonceeverytwo years).Afew cabinet

membersaredropped ,andafew newmem bersarebroughtin,but

mostl theexisting membersareshuffledaround ,li eapackof

c rds,e chgellinganewdepartmenttolook after

The seco nd re son foramodernPM'sd min ance overothermini

s-tersisthepowerofthePM'spublicimage.Themassmediahas

ol-iciesare hardto understand Anindivid ual,constantly appearingo

th televisionand in th newspapers, is much easierto id nt ify with

Everybod in the country can recognizethePrime Minister,wh ile

many cannot putanam eto thefacesofthe other ministers.Asa result

thePM can,iftheneedarises, go'over the heads' ofthe other ministers

We takea fairly dim view ofthem both [thetwo candidates].Itis a difficultchoice,rather like askingwhichlunatic should run the asylum

We both agreed that they would prese ntthe same problems.They are both interventionis tsand they would both have foolish notions about runningthe country themselv esif they became PrimeMinister Itis clearlyadvisabletolook fora compromisecandidate

Weagreed thatsuch a candi datemust havethe followingqualities:

hemust bemalleable,flexible ,likeable, have no firmopinions, no brigh t ideas,not be inte llectuallycom m itted,andbe withoutthe strengthof purposetochangeanythi ng Aboveall, he mustbe someone whom we knowcanbe professionallyguided ,andwho is willingtoleave the busin ess of govern me nt inthe hands of experts

Third, allmin iste rsexcep tth e PM arekeptbusyloo kin g after their

governm entdep artments.The ydon't havetimetoth ink aboutand

moreabout wh at is going on thantheother ministersdo.Because

wh o makes that choice.Manersth at are not discussedcan, ineffect,

bedecid ed b the PM.The convention ofcollective responsibility

thenmeansthattherestof thegovernmenthave to go along with

Con sideringhow com p lex modernstatesare, hereare notreallyvery

peopl ethat were ther ewith theprevious government - the top rank

Unlikepoliticians,civilservants ,even of the highest rank,are

unknownto thelargerpublic Thereare probablyless than 10,000

names of thepresent secretary to the cabinet (who ru ns thecabinet

mo st sen io r positionsare usuallyfilled by peoplewho havebeen

s idth ati isth ey,an dnottheir ministers,whoreally governthe

representsthe cou nt ry 's lOp civilservants made an officialcomplaint

The civil service 85"

Prime Ministers sinc e 1940

Winston Churchill (19+0-4-1))

Winston Churchill ([ 9 I) [-I) '))

Anthony Eden (19H-,)7) Harold Macmillan ( 19 ')7-6 3) Alec Douglas-Home (1963-64-)

Edward Hea th ([97°-74-)

lames Callaghan (1976-79) Margaret Thatcher (J 979-9 r )

John Major (J991-97)

BJUf :::: Ccnservetive Red :::: Lcbour

The o rigin s ofthe civil service

T he British' cult of the talented amateur ' (see chapte r I)) is not normally expressed openly But when, i n the midd le of the nine

-teenth century, the structure of the modern civi l service was established, it was a consciously

s tated princip le, as described by the contemporary historian L ord

Macauley:

We be lieve t hat men w ho have been engaged up t o t wenty -one

o r twe nt y - tw o in studies which

h ave no immediate connect ion

w ith t he business of any profes

-s ion, a nd o f w hich the effect is

m~ rely to open, to invigorate, and

to enrich t he mind, will generally

be found in the business of eve ry

pro fession superior to men who

h ave , at eighteen or nineteen.

devoted themselves to the special studies of their calling.

I n other w ords, it is better to be a non -specialist than a specialis t, to

ha ve a good brain rather than thor

-ough kno wledge Reforms since then h ave given greater emphasis Lo specialist kn ow led ge, but the central belief remains that administration is

an an r ather than an applied science.

86 8 The government

~ Wh i t e h all

civil servants.

o, 100 ,

that four governmentmin isters'verballyabused'theircivil service advisers andgenerallytreatedthem 'with contempt ' Itwas thefirst

time thatsucha complaint had been made,Itseem ed that theunpre -cedentedly long periodof government by the same party (the Conservatives- see chap ter 10) hadshifted thetradi tio nal balance

of power

However, theBritish civilservice hasa (largely)deserv edreputa -tion for absolutepolitical impartiality.Manyministershaverema rked

on the strugglefor power betweenth m and their top civilservants,

but veryfew have ever complainedofanypoliticalbias.Topcivil

servantsknowthattheir po\verdependson their stayingoutofpol

u-ics' and on their bein g absolutelyloyalto theirpresentminister Modern criticismof the civil servicedoesnot que stion itsloyalty

butitsefficiency.Despitereforms,thetoprank ofthe civilserviceis

stilllargely made up of peoplefrom the same narrow sectio n of society- peoplewho have beento publicsclio ol(see chapter 14)

andtheno to Oxford or Cambridge,where they studiedsu bjects

such as history or classical anguages The criticis m isther efor e that

the civilservicedoesnot have enoughexpertise inmatterssuch as economicsortechn ology.and that itlivestoo muchin its ow n closed

world ,cut off from the concerns of most peopl einsocie ty In the late twentiethcentury,ministerstriedtoovercome thesepercei veddefi

-cienci esby appo inti ng experts from outside the civilser vicetowork

on variousprojects and by havingtheir own politicaladviserswo rking

alongside(or, SOIl1e wouldsay, in competitionwith) theircivil servants

Somecountries, such astheUSA and Canada, are feder al.Theyare

nu de up ofanumber of states,eachofwhich hasits ow n government withitsown powers to make laws and collecttaxes.In these countries

the central governmentshave powerson lybecau sethestates have

given them powers.InBritainit is the otherwayaro und.Localgov -ernmenta thorities(generallyknow n as'councils' ) only have powers becausethe central governmenthas given them pov.·ers

Indeed ,they onlyexist because the centralgovernmen tallows them

toexist.Several tim es in the lasthund red years Britishgovernments

have reorganized local government,abolis h ingsome localcouncils

and brin gin g newonesinto existence

The system oflocal governme n t is very similarto the systemof nationalgovernment.Thereare elected representatives,called co un-cillors (th e equivalent ofMPs) They meet in a council cham ber in

th Town Hallor County Hall(the equ ivalentofParliament),where

theymak policywhicli is implemented b local governme ntofficers (th equivalentof civilservants)

Most Britishpeople havefarmoredirectdealingswith localg

traditi on allymanag e nearly all publicservices Takentogether, they

Inaddition, thereisno system inBritain wherebyan tionalgovern

-ment officialhas respon sibilityfor a partic ular geographicalarea

(There isno one likea'prefect' or 'governor)In practice , therefore,

localcouncilshavetraditionallybeen fairlyfreefrom constantcentral

interferen cein their day todaywork

Local counc ilsare allowedtocollectone kind of tax.Thisisatax

based on property.(Allother kindsare collected by central

whoownedpro perty.Its amountvariedaccordi ng tothesize and

location of theproperty.In the early I 99 0Sitwasreplaced bythe

Key to Eng land an d W ales

I W romHIRE

2 GREATER II.l.N{HEITH

J IOUTH roRKS H I ~E

4 DERmHI U

5 N OTTlN GlWll HIRE

I SfmORDlHIRE

I LEKESffRSHIRE

I WEn HIDIJ,NDI

t U/1UIOGE5tlIlE

10 'ORJJIIJtPIOH5tlIRE

I WIJ.WlmI!llE

11 HElEFOtll /JI D WOKElHR

F RA N CE

IJ I 8 EOfOROIH IRE

14 B UU INGHAMI H IRE

IS GLO UUlH~IM I ~E

16 HE RTFO~DIHIU

11 OIFO ~OlH 1RE

II GUAm lOHOON (~ iRal) I' 8ERlSHIU

10 lWll'SHll<

11 W1LTSHIU

11 Gwm

lJ "10 Gll"ORGAM l( SOUTH GLlIIORGlJl

?(Gre ater Lond on o nly)l S m

Key t o Greater l o ndo n Boroughs

I (ilJ 01 London 9 Soulttw~.t

1 (ilJol Wfl~lf' 10 lfwil h3nl

• klillrtOll 12 W >ndI-m

5 lbn"l'1 B b nsilpa' tlltM.

1 Wilth>/II Fmsl IS RKt.ond"1lO" IUlnn

I fc-t<~e l6 liolt'lOIlllO" n-,.

British Isles:

Counties and

as a t J une 199 5

Key to Nort hern Ireland

I BWAIT 1 m MAMAGH

1 H EWTOWMABBEl I) ONAGH

J (,I RRI{KmGUI 16 (ooKSTOWN

4 amEREAGH 17 MAG HEW !LT

5 HORTH DOW N 18 UPJ.BANE

6 AMII 19 DERRY

J DOWH 1 U II.l.VAOI

I H !WRf.&N O"OURHE 11 (OUPJ.IHE , BANBRl OGl 11 BALlTMOHET

II {,WGAYO H H BAU TIt! IlA

u UIIAGH 15 \.lRNE

II- Counties,boroughs,parish es Cou nt ies ar e the oldest divis ions of

t he c ou ntry in Engla nd and Wales.

Most of th em exis ted befo re the Nor m an co nquest (see cha pter 2).

The y are st ill us ed today f or lo cal

gove rn ment purpo ses, although a few have been 'i nv e nt e d ' mo re

r ecent ly (e g Hum ber s ide ) and

o the r s hav e n o f unction i n go vern

-m ent b ut a re st ill used for other pur poses One o f the se i s Middlesex,

wh ich c over s t he western pan of

G reater lond on ( let ters ar e s till

a ddressed 'Middx ' ] a nd which i s

the name of a t op -class cr icket te am

Man y c ount ies have ' shir e ' i n t heir

name ( e g H ertfordshir e

Hampshir e , L eicestershire) 'Shires'

is wh at t he counties were or iginally

call ed

Bo roug hs were origin ally to wns that had gr own l arge a nd im po rtant

e nough to be gi ven th eir o w n g

ov-ernme nt, f re e of co nt rol b y the cou nty T hese da ys, the name is used for lo cal governme nt p urposes only

in lo ndo n, but many towns sti ll pro udly des crib e th em selves as Roya l Bo rough s.

Parishes were o ri ginall y village s

cent red on a l ocal church T hey

became a u nit of l ocal government

in the ninet eent h century Tod ay

t hey are the s m allest u nit o f loc al government in England

The name 'pari sh ' i s st ill u sed in the o rganization o f th e main Chri

s-t ian churche s in England ( see

cha pte r 13 )

88 8 Th e go vernme nt

T h e sto r}'of theGr eater L o ndon

Cou nc il (GL C) i s an ex ampleof t he

s trug gle f or power be twe en c en tral

an d l o cal g ov ernment , I n t he ea rl y

1 9 80 s Br itain had a r ight -w ing Con

-se rvative gove rnme nt, A t a t ime

wh en t his gov ernment w as un

popu-la r the l eft -Wing La bour party i n

ga ined con trolof theGLC Th e

Labour-controlledG LC t hen intro

Lo ndo n's b uses a nd in creased local

taxes t o p ay fo r t hi s)

T he gove rnm ent de cided to

abo lish th e GL C U s ing its maj orit y

i n th e H o useo f Co m mons.it w as

a ble t o d ot hi s.Th e p owe rs of t he

G LC were e ither g iven to t het hir t

y-t wo h o roug h sof L on do n ,or t o

s peci alco mmnces It was no t until

the y ea r 20 00 t hat a S in g le g overn

-m e ntal aut h or i ty for th e who le of

L on do n ca me int o ex istence a gain

a nd t h e cit y ot it s fir st ever di rectly

-elected m a or

I n co mp a riso n w ith th e people o f

other w e t e rn co untries t he Briti sh

p ubli c b uy r elativel y few books

H o w ever this d oe s no t ne cessarily

mean [h at the y r ead l ess T here ar e about 5" , 000 pub lic lib raries i n

B ritain ( hat 's about one f or ev ery

12, 0 0 0 p eopl e) On ave rage ea ch

r ecent survey s ho w ed t hat 70 % o f

c hildren bet we en t he a ges of four

a nd s ixteen u se the irl oc al lib rar y t leas t twi ce a mo nt h and t hat 5" I % o f

t hem u se it o nce a we ek o r m ore

I n additi on a nd u nfortunately ,

ma ny Bri ti sh pe op le see m to pr efer libra ri es to bo o k s h o p s eve n wh en

t hey want t oo w na boo k N early

nin e m illi o n boo ks ar e sto len fro m

t h e h elveso f li brariesev ery y ear.

same for everybodywho lived in the area covered b acouncil Itwas

veryunpopular andwasquicklyreplaced bythe'counciltax' , which

isbasedon the estimated valueofaproperty and thenumber of

peo ple living ini Lo cal c ounc ils a re unable t o rai se e nou gh mon ey

i n thi s way for t h em to p rovide t he s ervices which ce ntral g o vernment

hastoldthem to provide.In addition, recentgovernmentshave

imp o sed upp er limit s o n the amount o f co uncil ta x that co uncils c an

c harge and no w co llect the taxes on bu siness pr op erties th em selves

(and then share themoneyout betweenlocal councils) Asa result ,

ce ntral g overnm ent.

Th e m od ern tr end ha s been t oward s gr eater a nd g reater co mrol b y

ce ntral governmenloThi s i s not just a matt er o f co ntrolling th e w ay

l o cal go vernm ent r aises mone y T here ar e n ow m ore la w s g o verning

thewaycouncilscanconduct their affairs On topofthis, schools

and hospitals can now 'opt out'oflocal-government control(see

chapters 14and 18) Perhapsthis trend isinevitablenowthat

-ent candidates(candidateswho do not belong to a politicalparty)at

l o cal e le ct i ons a re becom ing rare r an d rarer Mo st p eopl e no w vote

atlocal electionsaccording to theirnational party preferences,ifthey

both erto vote at all,so thattheseelections become akind of opinion

pollon theperformanceofthenation al government

Lo cal go vernment s ervices

Most of th e n umero us services tha t a mo dern gov e rnment pr ov ides

outsidepeople'shouses (the peop le who dothisare euphem istically known as'dustrnen ') , and thecleaning andtidyingof allpublicplaces

(whichisdone by'street sweepers) (e- Theorganizationof locol

gOl"emment).Theyalsoinclud e the provisionof public sw im m ing pools,which charge admissionfees,and publicparks,whichd not Thelatter aremostlyjustgreen grassy spaces,butthey oftencont ain

children's playgroundsand playingfieldsforspor tssuch asfootball

and crick et whi ch c an be re served in advan ce o n pa ym ent.

Publiclibrariesareanother well-know nservice( e-Publiclibraries)

and magazin estherefreeof charge.Ifyou want tobor row booksand take themout of thelibrary,you have tohave alibrary cardor ticket

(theseare availabletopeoplelivin g in thearea).Sometimes CDsand

video cassettesarealsoavailable for hire.Thepop ularityoflibraries

in Bri tain i s indicated by the fact th at in a cou ntry wi thout id entity

mean s o f id entification fo r s o meo ne wh o do es n ot ha ve a dri ving

li cence.