The United Kingdom
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TONY BLAIR
Tony Blair became the leader of
Britain's Labour Party in 1994. He positioned the party as New
Labour and trounced the Conservatives in the
1997 election. His first year in office was marked by
energetic constitutional reform including
devolution in Scotland and Wales. He also
made up with Europe and, together with his chancellor of the
exchequer, Gordon Brown, handed the power to set interest rates
to the
Bank of England. This strong leadership
went down well. Even embarrassments such as
Peter Mandelson and the
Millennium Dome failed to cramp Mr Blair’s style. His
attempts at peace-making in Kosovo, Sierra Leone and
Northern Ireland also won him praise. But in 2000 Mr Blair
lost his sure touch. Ken Livingstone, a symbol of the “loony
left”, was
elected London's mayor against Mr Blair's wishes.
Embarassing leaks revealed a government obsessed by spin and
presentation. The prime minister also
mishandled a fuel crisis and
inflamed rural opinion over foxhunting and foot-and-mouth
disease. Yet Mr Blair recovered to
lead Labour to victory in the June 2001 election. After the
terrorist attacks of September 11th, he recast himself as a
war leader and defied public opinion and
enraged party members by joining America's war on Iraq in
early 2003. This huge gamble seemed to have
paid off, though a row with the
BBC over evidence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction
appeared for a time to
threaten his political career. His government was ultimately
cleared, and the BBC scathingly criticised, by an
independant inquiry, but the issue remains controversial, and in
February 2003 Mr Blair announced another
inquiry, into intelligence failures in the run up to war. Mr
Blair, who has
not yet delivered his promised improvements to public
services, has also faced rebellions on proposed government
reforms to
university tuition fees and hospitals. But it is a
stretch to think that these problems will trigger his
resignation.
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Political
Structure
From Economist.com
Official
name
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Form of state
Parliamentary monarchy
Legal system
Based on
statute and common law; there is no written constitution.
National legislature
Bicameral; the House of Commons has 659 members directly elected on a
first-past-the-post basis; the upper chamber, the House of Lords, was
reformed in late 1999, as a result of which most hereditary peers have
now lost their seats, but 92 have retained them pending a second stage
of reform
Electoral system
Universal direct suffrage from age 18
National elections
June 7th 2001; next general election due by June 2006
Head of state
Queen Elizabeth II, who acceded to the throne in 1952
National government
Cabinet headed by the prime minister; the prime minister is appointed by
the monarch on the basis of ability to form a government with the
support of the House of Commons; the present Labour government was
re-elected to a second term in June 2001
Prime minister: Tony Blair
Chancellor of the exchequer: Gordon Brown
Main political parties
Labour Party; Conservative Party; Liberal Democrats; Scottish National
Party; Plaid Cymru (Welsh National Party); Northern Ireland parties:
Ulster Unionist Party; Democratic Unionist Party; Social Democratic and
Labour Party; Sinn Fein
Politics in
Brief
The
Labour Party
DEVOLUTION
Wide-ranging devolution
was
introduced to Britain by the Labour government in 1997.
Referendums in
Scotland and
Wales that year voted for separate parliaments, albeit with
differing levels of power. Inaugural elections were held in
1999, and the assemblies were
re-elected in May 2003. Also in 1999, a parliamentary
assembly was reintroduced to
Northern Ireland (although its operations have been
hindered by sectarian strife). In England,
eight regional development agencies were created in
1999.Enemies of the process said it would weaken British unity.
But devolution has
improved British democracy by giving regional politics a
strong voice and
neutralising nationalist sentiment. It has encouraged
proportional representation, provided scope for diverse
approaches to issues such as
studt fees and
delivery of public services, and has survived some
sleaze-induced hiccups. But there have been inconsistencies
in the government’s approach. Tony Blair’s
desire to control the choice of candidates backfired, most
notably in
Wales and the
London mayoral elections in 2000, and has undermined
goodwill created by devolution's roll-out. Beyond London,
elected mayors have had mixed success. The announcement in
June 2003 of future
referendums proposing regional assemblies for several English
regions is a promising idea, but their proposed powers need
boosting to make them effective. |
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The Labour
Party emerged as a political grouping at the end of the 19th century,
growing out of a complex of organisations, notably the trade unions.
After the first world war Labour displaced the Liberal Party as the main
political alternative to the Conservative Party. Labour governed the
country in 1945-51, 1964-70 and 1974-79. It returned to power in 1997
after 18 years in opposition.
During its long period in opposition Labour was transformed. After a
brief lurch towards the left at the beginning of the 1980s the party
gradually moved back towards the political centre, weakening its links
with the trade union movement and downplaying its previous emphasis on
redistribution in an effort to widen its appeal to the middle classes.
Mr Blair’s “new” Labour Party is centrist and undogmatic, but
traditional supporters regret its abandonment of key tenets of socialist
doctrine, and there is resentment over the tight control exercised by Mr Blair.
The Conservative Party
The Conservative Party traces its roots back to the Tory Party of the
18th century. Traditionally, it has embraced right-of-centre policies
and has drawn much of its support from business interests and the
affluent. It also tends to enjoy greater support among the old than the
young, and among rural rather than urban dwellers. In recent years it
has suffered dramatic declines in support in Scotland and Wales and is
now primarily an English party.
Although the Conservative Party is easily the most successful
political party in the UK this century (in terms of general elections
won), it suffered its heaviest defeat since 1906 at the general election
in 1997 and recovered almost no ground at the last election in 2001. The
party has had difficulty shaking off its tired image with voters and
overcoming the bitter divisions, particularly over Europe, which have
raged within it since Mrs Thatcher was deposed as leader in 1990.
The Liberal Democrats
The third-largest party is the Liberal Democrats, established in the
late 1980s by the merger between the Liberal Party and part of the
Social Democratic Party, which had itself been formed in 1980 by
disaffected senior Labour Party figures. The Liberal Party was the heir
of the old Whig Party and alternated with the Tories as the party of
government in the 19th century. It was displaced as the main alternative
political force to the Conservatives by the Labour Party after the first
world war (1914-18). Since then its electoral fortunes have fluctuated.
The Liberal Democrats performed creditably at the 1997 and the 2001
general elections.
As a result of the voting system, the Liberal Democrats’
representation in the House of Commons has always been much smaller than
its share of the vote. Relations between the Liberal Democrat leadership
and the Labour Party were quite close when the latter returned to office
in 1997, but relations have since cooled and the two parties have
gradually distanced themselves from each other.
