"Conservative Dominance in British Politics Between 1885 and 1905 Was Due to Conservatives Strengths Rather Than Liberal Failures" Discuss

History "Conservative Dominance in British Politics Between 1885 and 1905 Was Due to Conservatives Strengths Rather Than Liberal Failures" Discuss There are many different factors which contributed to the Conservative dominance of the period between 1885 and 1905. For one, the electoral reform of Gladstone's second ministry had a large effect on the Conservatives period in office as did the skill of Salisbury as a leader. The role that the government took in terms of its policies and foreign policy, and the nature of support for the party also played important roles in the conservative dominance. This is because the Conservatives lost working class support during its ministry, yet still managed to dominate politics for nearly twenty years. However, it can be suggested that due to the split in the liberals and the weaknesses the party, that conservative dominance was more to do with Liberal weaknesses than conservative strengths. One of the key reasons the Conservatives were so successful was because of Salisbury's leadership skills. This was demonstrated when he managed to persuade Gladstone that he would (as head of house of Lords) pass the reform act in return for the Redistribution of Seats Act. Salisbury knew that the reform act was inevitable, so he used his political skills to negotiate the redistribution of seats act in return for the reform act. This ultimately

  • Word count: 658
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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"Critically evaluate the relationship between Members of Parliament, political parties and pressure groups in the formation of legislation"

Q) "Critically evaluate the relationship between Members of Parliament, political parties and pressure groups in the formation of legislation" Introduction The definition of legislation is that it I the whole or any part of a countries written law. In the UK this term usually means Acts of parliament, but can also means law made under other powers decided by Acts of parliament (delegated legislation). In this essay I will discuss the relationship between the members of parliament, political parties and pressure groups in the formation of legislation. The Legislative Process Before an Act of Parliament is put into power, it has to pass through the legislative process. This means that the government has to check that the act is suitable and other such considerations. The First Stage (public bills) The first stage in the legislative process is that the bill has to drafted. Acts of parliament are to begin with drafted by lawyers that work for the government. They are known as Parliamentary Counsel to the Treasury. They are told by what they have to put in the bill, and what the law is trying to bring about to the department who is responsible for it. When the bill is drafted, it is then published. It must be made sure that the bill gives a clear picture of what the government wants and that the legal wording is such, that there can be no loopholes in the law. The select

  • Word count: 1909
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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"Debates, Question Time, and Select Committees all give Parliament Teeth." Do you agree?

"Debates, Question Time, and Select Committees all give Parliament Teeth." Do you agree? I don't agree with this statement because in general I don't think that Parliament is able to complete one of its main functions, to scrutinise the Government - or get its teeth into Government - very effectively. Parliament's other main function is to pass bills, yet I don't think that it can do this very well either. First of all, there are a number of reasons which prevent Parliament from being very effective and getting its teeth into Government during debates. For instances, questions are expected from MPs, so they already have answers prepared. Also, going into a debate an MP cant expect to change anyone's opinion, at best they can just hope to higher their profile and get noticed. What's more, backbench MPs, who will be aiming to raise awareness of a problem bought to their attention by constituents, hardly get the opportunity to speak, especially during great debates. Furthermore, the Whips tell MPs what to say and when to attend, so debates are very much under their control, yet sometimes debates can just turn into slanging matches between MPs. Finally, there is generally a poor attendance in debates, so often there are deals done in the corridors, as private conversations appear to be more effective. On the other hand though, debates do allow Parliament to recommend amendments

  • Word count: 1313
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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"Did the Liberal Government of 1906-14 create the early Welfare State?"

"Did the Liberal Government of 1906-14 create the early Welfare State?" The Liberal government returned to office on 4th of December 1905 after a ten-year absence. In January 1906 the Liberals won the general election by a massive majority of 400 seats to the Conservative Party's 157 seats. From 1906 to the start of the First World War the Liberal government embarked on a numbers of social reforms that were to lay the foundations of a system under which the state (rather than the individual) would take responsibility for the welfare of its citizens. These reforms aimed to ease the plight of the poor and improve their standard of life. Before the creation of the welfare state in the 20th Century the 'Poor Law' was the only form of aid that was offered to the poor. The 'Poor Law' consisted of a combination of out door relief and the workhouses. The living condition for those not in steady employment were harsh to say the least. The choices that many poor people were faced if they were unable to finds work was to, beg, steal, prostitution or starve to death. The latter may seem some-what extreme, but many people at this time would have rather starved themselves to death, rather that go into the workhouses. The workhouses were extremely harsh and deliberately striped away any dignity or self-respect of whose who were desperate enough to enter them. Those who did lost their right

  • Word count: 2432
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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"Emergence of the concept of popular sovereignty and democracy in the British political system."

We can easily see how British system has transformed from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy. This did not happen through one night's work, there have been terrible struggles between monarchs and newly established parliament. It took more than four centuries for parliament to create full dominance over monarchy after Magna Carta and additional three hundred years to develop its political system to its elaborate present condition. From these centuries of developing Britain, we can derive many good lessons in order to compare them to other political systems. We can compare it in a sense that we, in Kyrgyzstan, have newly established presidential democracy after 70 years of totalitarian rule under Soviet Russia. One in Kyrgyzstan might critically say that we need not presidential but parliamentary democracy with relatively strong and responsible to Parliament head of state like that in Britain. He would argue depending on the stability of political system in UK and would like to have such system here. What are the contributions to the emergence of popular sovereignty and how it eventually led to the democracy? Magna Carta was the first step toward establishing democratic principles in the British political system. With the help of this document for the first time, the rights of the ruling king were reduced in 1215. This document contained statements of the nobility

  • Word count: 917
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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In what ways did the British government attempt to hide the effects of the Blitz from the people of Britain?

The Blitz By Seniz Ibrahim Q3. In what ways did the British government attempt to hide the effects of the Blitz from the people of Britain? A3.The streets of London where bombed for 57 consecutive nights from September 1940 to May 1941. 30,000 innocent people where killed and a further 50, 000 seriously injured. The citizens of not only London, but the whole of England watched as they saw well know landmarks and irreplaceable historic buildings crumble at there feet. This devastation was thought to be too much for the British nation to handle so the government hide the effect of the Blitz. Why did they hide the effect of the blitz? How did they cover it up? Read on and find out the answers to theses questions and much more. The main aim of the Nazis was clear they wanted to bomb Britain until they gave up and surrendered. With this in mind the British government needed to boost morale and keep up the war effort to get though this difficult time. The Defence of the Realm Act in 1914 was made primarily for World War One it stated the government could "issue regulations for securing the public safety and defence of the realm" this gave the government the power to requisition property, control labour, apply censorship and remove traditional civil liberties. The Defence of Realm Act was also used in World War Two to keep the morale and war effort of the British people high

  • Word count: 1110
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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Proportional Representation

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION What is proportional representation? Proportional representation is a broad term for a group of electoral systems that distribute a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates get in elections and the percentage of seats they receive. Proportional Representation includes systems like STV, AMS and AV+. It is often distinguished from plurality voting systems, where disproportional seat distribution results from the division of voters into multiple electoral districts, for instance in first past the post districts. Though we do not use PR in general elections, countries like Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use PR on a regular basis. Explain the workings of the AMS and the STV in the UK Additional member systems have been in use, since devolution in 1999, for the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and London Assembly. Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) are elected in one of two ways: (1) as first past the post constituency MSPs or; (2) as regional additional-member MSPs.73 are elected as constituency MSPs and 56 are elected as additional members, seven from each of eight regional groups of constituencies. This additional member system produces a form of proportional representation for each region.All MSP positions become simultaneously vacant for elections held on a four year cycle. If a vacancy arises at

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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How successful was the labour government in achieving their aims in 1924 and 1929-31?

Mandeep Singh Garewal How successful was the labour government in achieving their aims in 1924 and 1929-31? In January 1924 Ramsey MacDonald formed labours initial administration in coalition with the liberals his appointment of red clydesider and fellow Scot John Wheatley as health minister raised hopes of social change in Scotland. The labour and liberal governments were able to out vote the conservatives over political issues. Wheatley's 1924 Housing Act attempted to initiate an agenda of slum clearance and subsidised housing but it died with the Conservative triumph in the General Election in October. In 1929 there was a minority government so passing laws were complicated, however, the liberals supported the labour party. The labour government had many aims for Britain in different areas of politics. The financial issues affecting the British population and the government were that the government required to decrease the total of expenditure; this enabled them to steady the economy and help to finance the country. In 1929 the country had suffered economic depression from the Wall Street crash this also contributed to the decline of trade in Britain and the economy slumping. There was a large dilemma of unemployment in Britain and the government wanted to get rid of poverty. Sickness and old age also contributed to this poverty. The living conditions in

  • Word count: 1043
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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Describe the formal process of statute creation in parliament.

A. Describe the formal process of statute creation in parliament. Any proposed new law, which is being discussed in parliament, is called a Bill. The type of bill depends on which source introduces the bill in the first place. The government introduces public Bills; the members of the cabinet have a major role in processing new legislation. They also decide which of these ideas will be put before parliament for discussion. Private member bills are introduced by individual MP's, who may be Backbench MP from the government's own party, or an MP from any other political party. Private member's bills go through the same stages as a Public bill so it will need the support of the government if it is to succeed. Private Bills are introduced by Organizations. This type of bill has to be pushed through parliament by those who want it to succeed. If there are not enough resources the bill will fail. Firstly the bill will introduce a Green paper, this is usually done to ask the public what they think of the idea. Having early consultation creates better legislation, as the feedback can be used to improve the document. Not all bills introduce the Green paper and just introduce the White paper. The White paper means the proposals for the new law are much firmer now. Discussion of the white paper leads to the drafting of the bill. After the drafting has been done you have

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  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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Compare and contrast the major fertility issues facing an LEDC and an MEDC

Chris Dubock 1kk 4/10/04 Compare and contrast the major fertility issues facing an LEDC and an MEDC In this essay the LEDC will be the Dominican Republic and the MEDC shall be Switzerland. There should be a variety of contrasting factors because the Dominican Republic is a poor country and has to use the little money it has to help with problems that may occur in the country, where as Switzerland is a very rich country and thus has a lot more money to spend on the problems within the country. One of these problems is the fertility. There are three main issues, which are the social, political and economic implications. Map of where Dominican Republic is: Map of where Switzerland is: The first part is the social trends within the two countries to do with fertility. Starting with the fact that in both LEDCs and MEDCs the age that people get married has increased a surprising amount between the 1970s to 1990s. In LEDCS men are now getting married at a median age of 27.2 from 25.4 and 22.0 to 26.1 years old for women. In MEDCs it has gone from the age of 25.2 to 28.8 for the men a four-year advance from women now getting married at a median of 26.1 years old from 22.0. This has created the fact that people are now spending less time of their life being married. The median amount of people aged 25-29 has dropped since 1970 as well. Women have gone

  • Word count: 1189
  • Level: GCSE
  • Subject: Politics
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