How Red Is Ed Miliband?
How Red Is Ed? Health - Left Increase funding and de-commercialise the NHS. Wants to decrease waiting times for a more efficient system. Middle Britain - Left Insisted there will be “no lurch to the left” and used an article from the Sunday Telegraph to focus on issues that affect the ‘squeezed middle [classes], such as immigration. Miliband may be more mindful of neglecting the working classes (as New Labour was accused of) but recent comments suggest he will not overlook the importance of New Labour’s natural constituency. The deficit - Solidly centre left Miliband has not made his position clear yet, only saying he would use Alistair Darling’s deficit reduction plan. His choice of Chancellor will be clear. Picking Ed Balls might indicate a decisive move away from Darling’s - and the last Labour government’s - deficit reduction plan, which Balls described as “too ambitious”. Education - Solidly centre left Miliband favours a graduate tax which would mean those who go on to earn more, pay more for their higher education. But he might instead plump for a graduate contribution, which would limit people paying back their actual costs of education, and be less redistributive. He has criticised coalition cuts to the schools building programme but supports the city academy programme that is disliked by most of the Left. Industrial relations - Left
To what extent does the UK have a democratic deficit?
The UK is a democracy, the idea that the government of the people, by the people and for the people. Some people may say that there is a democratic deficit in the UK, for the people a lack of democratic accountability and control over the decision-making process. Firstly, the UK’s parliament is democratically voted for by the people. Within each constituency is a representative who has been fairly and freely voted for by the people. The fact that those eligible can vote freely and fairly demonstrates that the UK is a democracy. We have an electoral commission that monitors the voting as well. However the big question people ask is that is every vote fully represented? Representatives can get elected on tiny amounts of public support as it does not matter by how much they win, only that they get more votes than other candidates. So overall more people may vote against the winning candidate but that candidate may have more votes than the other individual parties. Therefore the representative isn’t necessarily representing the majority. Another issue with parliament is the power that the executive has. The leader of the political party which has gained a majority of the seats in the House of Commons at a General Election is invited by the monarch, to form a government. If he or she is successful in doing so, he or she then becomes the Prime Minister. This demonstrates a
To what extent does Great Britain need a codified constitution?
Hanzala Badar To what extent does Great Britain need a codified constitution? Recently questions have arisen on weather GB should turn their constitution to one that is codified. The constitution of GB is uncodified, meaning the laws, rules and principles specifying how a state is governed are not gathered in a single document. Instead they are found in a variety of sources, some written and others unwritten coming in the form of conventions. So does the constitution need to be codified, where the major principles and laws are collected in a single document? Many people argue that the UK needs a written constitution in order to restrain the unbridled power of the executive. However, with the executive located in and dominating parliament, anything that limits the power of the government undermines the traditional doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty. A written constitution, in particular, would refute the convention that no future government can be bound irrevocably by the actions of a former government. Another factor is that prerogative powers exercised by the government on behalf of the Crown are ill-defined and uncontrolled. Prerogative-based actions can only be limited if the courts judge them to be excessive. Decisions such as the declaration of war, the committal of British troops to battle, the signing of foreign treaties and general foreign policy initiatives are
To what extent are the major UK parties, internally united over ideas and policies
[To what extent are the major UK parties, internally united over ideas and policies?] MATI SAIDZAI (25M) It’s fair to say that the UK political parties are internally united over policies and over ideas to a certain extent, however I strongly believe that, the extent to which the parties are internally united is roughly about 20% the other 80% I believe it represents the majority of the disagreement within the major parties. Consensus politics is an overlap of ideological beliefs between parties on some issues, but each party disagrees on how to resolve these issues. Adversary politics is where the parties lie on different ends of the political spectrum, their ideological beliefs contradicts each other completely. These two politics are all based upon the political spectrum (left and right wing.) At this moment in time they followed a pragmatic approach to governing the country, pushing forward their values and theories of how to improve our country. On the other hand, parties nowadays (Labour equaling socialism, and conservatives equaling conservatism) are less pragmatic and they act to what is popular or what is needed at that time. As a result of this it could be argued that the less pragmatic approach is a trigger to the internal disunity within the parties. There are many reasons why there is disunity internally amongst the parties and why there could be unification
Assess the Strengths and Weaknesses of the British Constitution
Assess the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Constitution. The UK constitution is uncodified and only parts of it are entrenched. Whilst many people feel that the UK constitution works well without it being entirely codified, many others feel that there are too many weaknesses towards the constitution and therefore, the constitution obviously does not work as it is at the moment. There are many strengths and weaknesses within the constitution which make it how it is today. How much these factors affect the constitution and whether or not it should be changed is really to be decided by the individual that is assessing it, as many people have different opinions on what does and doesn’t working within the constitution. Flexibility within the constitution means that it is able to respond quickly and effectively to change, for example the “O’Donnell rules” are an entrenched work of authority. This shows that the constitution can cope with both entrenched and unentrenched documents without it causing confusion. The relatively smooth transition of power from single part government to coalition government in 2010 shows that the constitution is flexible to cope with any form of government. However, some people who are against an uncodified constitution may argue that the smoothness of the transition was mere good fortune and that future hung parliaments and coalitions may not
Evaluate the various ways in which participation and democracy can be strengthened in the UK?
Evaluate the effectiveness of the various ways in which participation and democracy could be strengthened in the UK? In recent years there has been concern that the UK is suffering from a participation crisis, turnout over the past 3 general elections has been significantly lower than the average between 1945 and 1997. This means there is a lack of active political engagement within communities, which is a dangerous prospect as if the Uk is to sustain being a representative democracy, then it needs the participation of the people, so that the government can make justifiable decisions within society which are fair and as decisive. Otherwise there is the threat of turning to a more autocratic government. Due to the decline in political participation new ideas are being incorporated into society to get citizens more actively engaged in politics. For example the use of electronic technology to aid in increasing levels of participation, for example using e-petitions and electronic voting makes things more accessible to a wider audience so therefore the scope of participation can be more expansive. The internet is also an opportunity to involve people in politics, the widespread access of blogs, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter can help to raise awareness of political issues so could increase participation. An example of electronic working effectively could be
Assess the extent to which the 2010 election illustrated the advantages and disadvantages of the FPTP system
Assess the extent to which the 2010 election illustrated the advantages and disadvantages of the FPTP system In this essay I will attempt to explore the First Past The Post system that is currently operating in the UK and how it affected the 2010 general election. Some of the key features of FPTP or 'simple majorities in single member constituencies,' are as follows; Each constituency returns only one Member of Parliament, each party may only nominate one candidate in each constituency, voters have only one vote each and most significantly if a candidate receives the largest number of votes then they are elected . This is known as gaining a simple majority or plurality. It therefore is not necessary to obtain 50 per cent or more of the votes to become elected in any given constituency. The aftermath of the election allowed the observation of the respective advantages and disadvantages exhibited by one of the most important and unusual election in British political history. One advantage of the FPTP system that was apparent in the 2010 general election was the fact that extremist political parties were effectively excluded from being elected to Parliament as they were incredibly unlikely to attain any votes in any one constituency. This was seen throughout the whole country as small right-wing parties like the BNP failed to break through. They only ended up winning 1.9% of
The election campaign is now more important than long term factors in shaping voting behaviour discuss.
Conor Hamer ‘The election campaign is now more important than long term factors in shaping voting behaviour’ discuss. Elections take place throughout Britain on a regular basis, for example only last week was there the controversial Police Commissioner elections. There are different types of elections such as, by- elections, local elections, devolved elections, European elections and general elections. Electoral campaigns have become more influential in recent elections due to the impact the media has these days. Long term factors that include social class, age, gender, region, and party identification, are also influential in elections, however not as much as they used to. This now has posed the argument that ‘the election campaign is now more important than long term factors in shaping voting behaviour’. Traditionally the public, voting on elections, often voted for the same party repeatedly. This is because a strong link existed between social classes and voting. More people voted for the party they felt best represented their social group, for example the majority of working class would vote for Labour whereas the middle class would usually vote for the Conservatives. However, since the 1980’s class voting has become less pronounced in general elections due to the distinctions between classes, being eroded. The evidence of class dealignment is clear as the
The case Against Electoral Reform
Mary-Ann Uvieghara ________________ The Argument against Electoral reform ________________ FPTP has persisted over the long history of Britain because it is familiar to the public, votes are simple to cast and count, and there is no surging public outcry for change. It usually leads to a one-party majority government. This enables the electorate to vote only for a local representative, while in fact choosing the party they wish to form a government. It then leaves each Member of Parliament (MP) with a direct relationship with a particular geographical area i.e. their constituencies, on a basis of at least nominal equality in the sense that they are all elected in the same way. It also enables the electorate sharply and cleanly to rid itself of an unwanted government. With the coalition tentatively reaching for electoral reforms, what would be the best system to replace it with? Does it even need to be replaced? I am going to examine each possible system and what it would how it would fulfil the needs created by FPTP AV The simplest change from FPTP would be the alternative vote, why -because it maintains almost the same criteria and fulfils almost the same needs as FPTP does. It would maintain the link between an MP and his/her constituencies .It would increase voter choice in the sense that it would enable voters to express their second , third or fourth preferences,
To what extent are the policies of Labour and Conservatives similar?
Yusuf G. To what extent are the policies of Labour and Conservatives similar? Although the strong distinctive left and right beliefs have deteriorated, there are still some MPs and party activists who are strongly socialist and Conservative in inclination. For example, the strongly socialist individuals were unhappy with the way Tony Blair and Gordon Brown allowed market forces to dominate their economic thinking. Furthermore, Labour leaders today know that if they move too far to the “left”, they will alienate floating voters as it will remind them of Old Labour’s “tax and spend” policies. David Cameron’s manifesto brought a few policies which are quite similar to Blair and Brown’s policies. For example, following the 2008 financial crisis, Cameron broadly supported Labour’s management of the economy. This conveys the fact that a degree of similarity exists between the two major parties. Under the 2010 Conservative manifesto, they pledged to reduce the deficit, cut tax, waste and spending and also to achieve greater deregulation. However, the deregulation conveys a subtle continuation of Thatcher’s policy on it. Both parties share different views on the EU, as well as joining the Euro. Cameron continued to demonstrate Euroscepticsm whilst supporting the Conservative MEP’s with the far right of the Euro Parliament. However, Labour has always had broad
