Tài liệu Part 10- Britain pptx

Questions 97 The stat e ope ning of Parliam ent These photographs shovv two scenes from the annual state opening of Parliament,This is an example of a traditionalceremony which reminds MPs of their special status and ofthcir 'togetherness'. In the first photograph, 'Black Rod', a servant of the Queen, is knocking on the door of the House of Com mons and demanding that the MPs let the Queen come in and tell them what 'her' government is going to do in the com ing year.The Commons always refuse her entry. This is because. in the severueenth century, Charles I once burst in to the chamber and tried to arrest some MPs. Ever since tac n. the monarch has not been allowed to enter the Commons. Instead, the MPs agree to come through to the House of Lordsand listen to the monarch in there. This is what they are doing in the second photograph. Bytradition they always come through in pairs, each pair comprising MPs from two different parties. / people agree that having two Houses of Parliam ent is a goo d idea, and that this seco nd house could have a more us ef ul function i fit were constituted in a different way (without the hereditary element). However, at this tim e, nobody can agree on what w ou ld be the best way to reform the com position of the second house, and so, despite recentreforms which have reduced the hereditary element, it remains as a fascinating ( but valuable) anachronism in a m od ern state. QUESTIO NS I Where would an MP of the Scottish Nat iona list party probably sit in the House of Commons' 2 In what ways do the seating arrangemen ts, general facilities and pay for British MPs differ from those of parliamentary representatives in your countr y? Why are they diff erent? 3 Many MPs in mo dern ti mes are experts in various fields of government. Because of the complexity of mo dern government, this is something wh ich seems to be necessary. But it could be said to have disadvantages, t oo. What do you think these disadvantages are? 4 When the Commons decide to vote, they do not vote immediately. Instead, a 'division bell' rings through out the Palace of We stmin ster, after which MPs have ten minutes in w hich to vote. Why ? 5 Many of the member s of the Hou se of L ord s are hereditary arits ocr ars.Wh y do the British put up wit h such an undemocratic eleme nt in their parliamentary system? Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Look at the table below.You can see that the electoral system used in Britain doesn't seem to add up. In the 20 0 1 election, the Labour party received only four out of every ten votes, but it won more than six ou t of every ten seats in the Hou se of Com mo ns. It won two-and-a.)lalf times as many seats as the Conservative party, even tho ugh it received less than one-and -a-half times as man y votes.The Liberal Democrat party did very badly out of the system. It got almost a fifth of the vote, but won only on e in thirteen of the seats in the Commons.And yet it was much luckier than it had been in the past.The arithmetical absurdity of the system becomes clear wh en we compare the fortunes of the Liberal Democrats this time wit h their fortunes in the 199 2 election. On that occasion , it go t the same pro portion of the total vote but fewer than half the number of seats.What's going on ?As is often the case wi th British institutions, the apparent ly illogical figures are the result of histor y. The system Unli ke in any other country in the world. the system of political representation that is use d in Britain ev olv ed before the coming of democracy. It also evolved before national issues became mo re important to pe op le than localones. In theory, the House of Commo ns is simply a gathering of peop le wh o each represent a particular place in the kingdom. Originally, it was not the concern of anybody in government as to how each representative was c hose n. That was a matter for each t own or co unty to decide for itself. No t until the nineteenth century were laws passed about how elections were to be con duc ted ( E> The evo lut io nofthe el ect oral syste m). Labour Conse rvative Liberal Dem ocrat All other par ties Votes 10,7 40.648 (4 1 %) 8.35"7,29 2 (32 %) 4.8,6, '37 (18%) 2.45"4.45"3 (9 %) MPs 4 '3 (63 %) 166 (25" %) " (8%) 28 (4%) Votes per MP 26,006 5"°,345" 92,618 87. 6,9 British gener al election results 200 I Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. This system was in place b ef ore the deve lop me nt of m od ern polit- ical parties (see chapter 6) . These days, of course, nearly everybody votes for a candidate because he or she bel on gs to a particular party. But the tradition rema ins that an MP is first and fo remos t a represen t- ative of a particular locality. The result of this tradi tion is that the electoral system is remar kably si mp le. It w or ks like this. The country is divided into a numbe r of areas of ro ughly equal population (about 9°,000), known as cons tituencies. Anybo dy who wants to be an MP must declare himself or herse lf as a can dida te in one of these constitu - encies. On polling day (the day of the election) , v ote rs go to polling stations and are each given a sing le piece of paper (the ballot paper) with the names of the candidates for that con stituency (only) on it. Each voter then put s a c ro ss next to the n ame of one candidate. After the polls have closed , the ballot papers are counted. The ca ndida te with the largest number of crosses next to his or her name is the winner and be com es the MP for the constituency. And that's the end of it. There is no preferent ial voting ( if a voter chooses mo re than one candidate, that ballot paper is 'spoiled' and is not counted) ; there is no counting of the proportion of votes for each party (all votes cast for losing candidates are sim ply ign or ed) ; there is no extra allocation of seats in Parli ament according to party strengths. At the 2 0 0 I election, there were 659 constitue ncies and 659 MPs were elected. It was called a gener al election , and of course contro l of the gov e rnme nt depended on it, but in formal terms it was just 659 separate elections going on at the same tim e. Here are the results from two cons tituencies in 200 I . Taunt on Votes Rochdale Votes Conservative Adrian Flook 23,033 Elaina Co hen 5 ,274 Liberal Democrat Jackie Ballard 22 ,79 8 Paul R owen [3,75[ Labour And rew Govier 8, 254 Loran Fitzsimons 19,4° 6 If we add the votes rece ived for each part y in these two constituencies together. we find that the Liberal Democr ats go t mor e votes t han Conservative or Lab ou r. And yet, these two parties each wo n a seat while the Liberal D emo crats did not. This is because the y were not first in eit her constituency. It is coming first that ma tters. In fact, the syst em is kno wn as the 'first-pa st-the - pos t' system (an allusi on to horse-racing) . Formal arrangements In practice, it is the gov ern men t which decides when to hold an electi on .The law says that an election has to take place at least every five years. However, the interval between elections is usually a bit sho rte r than this. A party in pow er does no t nor mally wait unt il the last possible mo ment. For example, the Labo ur gov ernme nt called the 20 0 1 elec tion after only f our years. W hen a part y Formal arrangements 99 iii- The evo lution of the elec to ral system 18 32 The G reat R efo rm Bill is passed. Very small boroughs, where electors can easily be persuaded who [0 VOle for, arc abolished. Seats are given to large new towns such as B irmingh am and Manchester. which have until now been unrepresen- ted in Parliament. The franchise (the right to VOle) is made uniform throug hout the count ry, although differences between rural and urban areas rem ain. II depends on the value of property owned. About 5" % of the adult population now has the right to vote in elections. 186 7 The franchise is extended [0 include most of the male workers in towns. 18 7 2 The secret ballot is introduced. (Until now, voting has been by a show of hands.) 18 8 4 The franchise is extended to include male rural labourers. 19 18 Wo men over [he age of thirty are given the right to vote. 19 28 Women are given the franchise on the same basis as men. All adults over tv·vemy-one now have {he right to vote. 19 69 The minimum voting agc is lowered to eighteen, and candidates are now allo wed to enter a 'po litical desc ription' of t hems elves next to their names on the ballot paper. Until now, the only inf ormation about a candidate that has been all ow ed on the ballot paper was his or her address. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 100 10 Elections Cr azy c andid at es You don't have to belong to an imp ort ant party [Q be a candidate. You don' t even have [Q live in the constituency. All )'ou need is £';00. Look at this list of cand id- ates from the 1992 election for the cons utucncv of Hun tingdon . Miss Deborah Birkhead G reen Lord Buc kcthead G remloids Charles Cockc ll Forwardto Mars Pany Andrew D uff Libe ral Dem ocra t Michael Flanagan Conse rvcrive Thctchente John Major Conse rvcnve Hugh Scckl cman la bour David She phe ard Natural Low Pan y Lord David Sutch Of ficial Monster Raring Loo nyPerty Paul Wiggin Li ber al Seven of these ten candidates did not gel their mo ney back. BUI there arc always some pe op le who arc willing 10 he candidates even when they know they have no chance of winnin g. Sometimes they are peop le fighting for a Single cause that they feel very sirongly ab out . Sometimes the y arc people who just like 10 be candidates for a joke. In this case they t end to be cand idates in con- sutucncies wher e they will get a lot of publicity. Hunti ngdon is whe re the Prime Minister at that tim e, John Major, was a candidate. so it was a natu ral choice. The most famo us of these 'silly' candidates was 'Lord' David Sutch. He was a candidate in the same con - stituency as the Prime Minister in every elec tion from 1966 to 1997. The inten tion of the £ 5"00 depo sit is 10 disco urage joke can did ates such as 'Lord ' Sutch . but they' cer- tainly add colou r and amu sement to the occasio n. has a very small majority in the House of C om mons, or no majority at all, the interval can be mu ch sho rter. After the date of an election has been fixed . people who want to be candidates in a constituency have to deposit £ 1)00 with the Returning Officer (the person respon sible for the conduct of the election in each constituency). They get this mo ney back if they get 1) % of the votes or more. The local associations of the major part ies will have already cho sen the ir cand idates (sec chapter 6) and will pay the deposits f or th em . However, it is not necessary to bel ong to a part y to be a candidate. It is a curious feature of the system that , legally speaking, parties do not exist. That is to say, there is no writte n law whic h tries to define them or regulate them . The law allows candidates. if they wish. to include a short 'p olitical descript ion ' of the mselves on the ballot paper. In practice, of course, mo st of these descriptions simply state 'Conservative', 'Labour' or 'Liberal Demo - crat'. But they can actually say anyt hing that a candidate wants them to say ( I> Cra zy candida tes). To be eligible to vote. a person mu st be at least eighteen years old and be on the electoral register. This is compiled every year for each constituency separately. People w ho have moved house and have not had time to get their names on the electoral register of their new constituency can arrange to vote by post. Nobody , however, is obliged to vote. The campaign British elections are comparatively quiet affairs. There is no tradition o fl arge rallies or parad es as there is in the USA. However. because of the inte nse coverage by the media. it wo uld be very difficult to be in Britain at the time of a campaign and not realize that an election was about to take place. The campaign reflects the c ontra st b etw een the f orm al arra nge - ments and the political reality. F or mally. a diff erent campaign takes place in each constituency. Local newspapers give coverage to the candidates; the candidates them selves hold meetings; partysupp or ters stick up posters in their windo ws; local party wo rkers spend their tim e canvassing ( I> Can vass ing). The amount of m on ey that candidates are allowed to spend on their campaigns is strictly limited. They have to submit detailed acco un ts of their expenses for inspecti on . Any att emp t to influ ence voters improperly is ou tlawed. But the reality is that all these activities and regulati on s do not usually make mu ch d iff erence. Nearly everybody votes for a candid- ate on the basis of the party which he or she represents, not because of his or her indi vidual qua lities or political opinions. Few pe opl e att end candidates' meetings; mo st people do not read local n ew spa- per s. In any case, the size of const ituen cies means that candidates cannot meet mo st voters, ho wev er energetically they go fr om do or to door. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. It is at a national level that the real campaign takes place. The parties spend million s of pou nds advertising on hoardings and in newspapers. By agreement, they do no t bu y time on television as they do in the USA. Instead, they are each given a nu m her of strictly timed 'party election broadcasts'. Each party also holds a daily televised news conference. All of this put s the empha sis on the national party pers ona lities rather than on local c and idates .Only in the 'marginal s' - constituencies where only a small shift in voting hehaviour from last time wo uld c hange the result - might t he qualities of an ind ividual candidate, possibly,affect the outcome . Polling day General elect ion s al wa ys take place on a Thursday. They are no t pub lic holidays. People have to w ork in the n ormal wa y, so polling stations are open from seven in the mo rning till ten at night to give every bod y the opp ortun ity to vote. The only peo ple who get a holiday are schoolchildren whos e schools are being used as polling stations. Each voter has to vote at a part icular polling station. After being ticked off on the electoral register, the voter is given a ballot paper. Elections on the British mainland are always very fairly conducte d. Northern Ireland , ho wever, is a ra ther different story. Ther e, the political ten sion s of so lllany years have had a negative effect on democratic pr oc edur es. Matters have improve d since the 19605. but the traditional, albeit jok ing, slogan in Ulster on polling day is 'vote early and vote often' - that is, try to vote as m any times as you can by imp ers onating other peopl e. After the polls close, the ma rked ballot papers are taken to a central place in the c on st ituency and counted . The R etur ning Of ficer t hen makes a p ub lic announcem ent of the vot es cast for each candidate and declares the winn er to be the MP for the constituency. This declaration is one of the few occas ions d uring the election process when sho uting a nd cheering may be hear d. An el ection r es ult being declared Polling day J 0 I Ii> Canvassing This is the activity that occupies most of the time of local party workers during an election campaign. Can- vassers go from door to door, calling on as many houses as possible and asking people how they intend to vote . They rarely make any attempt to change people's minds, but if a voter isidentified as 'undecided', the party candidate might later attempt to pay a visit. The main purpose of canvassing seems to be so that, on election day, trans port can be offered, if needed, to those who claim to be supportcrs. (This is theonly form of material help that parties are allowed to offer voters.) It also allov vs party workers to estimate how well they are doing on election day. They stand outside polling stations and record w hether their supp orters have voted. If it looks as If these peopleare not going to bother to vote, party workers might call on them to remind them to do so. Canvassing is an awful lot of work for very little benefit. It is a kind of election ritual. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 10 2 10 Elections II> The great television election show! British people are generally not very enthusiastic abou t poli tics. But that doe s not SlOp them enjoying a goo d. political fight. Notice the images of spon and of generals planning a mil- itary campaign in this extract from the Rad ioTimesfrom just bef ore the 1992 general election. What a night it's going to be! As in all the best horsereces there is no clear favourite. Not since 1974 have the two main parties been so closely matched. We may even keep you up all night withou t being able to tell you wh o's wa ll. On BBCI's 'Election 92', I'll have a whole array of electronic wiz ardry - including our Battle- grou nd -lO help explain and Illustrate what is shaping the new Parliament. Over 30 million people will have voted by 10 p.m. on the Thursday, but the decisive verdict will be pronounced by the five mill ion p eo ple who vote in the marginal seats - and these are the ones we feature in our Battle- ground. Labour's aim is to colou r the seats on the Bauleground red. The Conservatives' task is to keep them blue . So sit back in your armcha ir and enjoy the excitement. Radio T imes . April 1992 Election night The period after voting has bec om e a television extravaganza. Both BBCand lTV start their programmes as soo n as voting finishes. With millions watching, they continue right t hro ugh the night. Certain features of these 'election specials', such as the 'sw i ngome rer' have entered popular folklore ( e- Th eS lV i ngo meter). The first excitement of the night is the race to declare. It is a matter oflocal pride for some constituencies to be the first to announce their result. Doing so will guarantee that the cameras will be there to w itness the event. If the count has go ne smoothly, this usually occurs at just after 11.00 p.m. By midnight, after only a handfu l of results have been declared . experts (with the help of compute rs) will be making predictions a bou t the comp osition of the newly elected House of C omm ons. Psephology (the study of voting habits) has bec om e very sophisticated in Britain so that, although the experts never get it exactly right. they can get pre tty close. By two in the morning at least half of the constituencies will have declared their results and. unless the election is a very close one (as. for example, in 1974 and 1992) , the experts on the television will now be able to predict with confidence which party will have a majority in the House of C ommons . and ther ef ore which party leader is going to be the Prime Minister. Some con stituencies, however, are not able to declare their results until we ll into Fridayafternoon. This is either because they are very rural (mostly in Scotland or Northern Ireland). and so it takes a long time to bring all the ballot papers together. or because the race has been so close that one or more 'recount s' have been necessary. The phenomeno n of recounts is a clear dem onstration of the ironies of the British system. In mo st constituencies it would not make any difference to the result if several thou sand ballot papers were lost. But in a few. the result depend s on a handful of votes. In these cases, candidates are entitled to demand as many recounts as they wa nt until the result is bey ond doubt. The record numb er of recounts is seven (and the record margin of victory is just one voter). Recent results and the future Since the middle of the twentieth century. the contest to form the government has effectively been a straight fight between the Lab our and Conservative parties. As a general rule. the north of England and most of the i nner areas of English cities return Labour MPs to Westminster. while the south of England and most areas outside the inner cities have a Conservative Mil. Which of these two parties forms the government depends on which one does better in the suburbs and large towns of England. Scotland used to be g ood territory for the Conservatives. This changed. however. during the I980 s and the vast majori ty of MPs from there now represent Labour. Wales has always returned mostly Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. Swingomet ers from ' 970 and 1992 Labour MPs. Since the I 970 s, the respective nationalist parties in both countries (see chapter 6) have regularly won a few seats in Parliament. . Traditionally, the Liberal party was also relatively strong in Scot- land and Wales (and was so met imes called the party of the 'Celtic fri nge'). Its modern successor, the Liberal Democrat party (see chapter 6), is not so geographically restricted and has mana ged to win some seats all over Britain, wi th a concentration in the sou th- west of England. Northern Ireland always has ab out the same propo rtion of Protestant Unionist MPs and Catholic Nationalist MPs (since the [970S, about two -thirds the f orm er, the third the latter). The only element of uncertainty is how many seats the more extremist (as opposed to the mor e mod erate) parties will win on either side of this invariant political divide (see chapter 12). Recent results and the future [03 The swingometer This is adevice used by television presenters on election night. It indicates the percentage change of support from one party to another partysince the previous election - the 'swing'. Individual constituen- cies can be placed at certain points along the s wingometer to show how much swing is necessary to change the partyaffiliation of their MPs. The sw ingomctcr was first made popular by Professor Raben McKenzie on the BBC's coverage of the 1964 election . Over the years, it has bec ome more colourful and com plicated. Most people enjoy it but say they areconfused by it! Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. 104 10 E lections Size of overall majority in the House of Com mons (with name of leader of winning party) Thatcher (48) Thatcher (144) Macmillan (100) Thatch er (89) • Maj or(21) W ilson (5) I Att lee (6) I • Churchill (17) Eden (60) _ He ath(30) (Feb)Wi lson '" I ( Oct)W ilson (3) I Wi lson (96) Blair (167) 1945 1950 195 1 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 1974 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 In the thirteen elections f rom 1945 to 1987 , the Con servatives were generally more successful t han Labo ur . ( I> Party performance in g enera l elec t ions since 1945).Alt ho ugh Labo ur achieved a majo rity on five occasions, on only two of these was the ma jorit y comf ortable. On the ot her three occas ions it was so small that it was in con stant danger of disappearing as a result of by-election defeats (I>By- ejectio ns). In the same per iod, the Conservatives won a majority seven times, nearly always comfortabl y. The n, in the 1992 election, the Con servatives won f or the fourth time in a row - the first time this had been achieved for mor e than 160 years. Moreo ver, t hey achieved it in the middle of an econo mic recess ion .This made many people wonder wheth er Labour could ever win again. It looked as if the swingometer's pen du lum had stuck on the right . La bour 's share of the total vote had genera lly decreased in the prev ious four decades while sup - port for the t hird party had grown since the early 1970s. Many sociologists believed this trend to be inevitable because Britain had develop ed a midd le-class major ity (as opp osed to its fo rm er working -class majority). Many political observers were worr ied about this situat ion. It is considered to be basic to the British system of democracy that powe r should change hand s occas iona lly. T her e was much talk abo ut a possible reorganization of Whenever a sitting MP can no longer fulfil his or her duties, there has to be a special new election in the con- stituency w hich he or she represents. (There is no system of ready substitures.) These are called by-elections and can take place at any time .They do not affect who runs the govern ment, btu they are watched closely by the med ia and the parties as indicators of the current level of popularity (or unpopularity) of the govern ment. A by-election provides the parties with an o pport unity to find a seat in Parliament for one of their importa nt people. If a sitting MP dies, the opport unity presents itself; if not, an MP of the same party mu st be persuaded to resign. The way an MP resig ns offers a fascinati ng exa mp le of the impor - tance attached to tradition. It is considered wro ng for an MP simply to resign; MPs represent their con - stituents and have no right to deprive them of this representation. So the MP who wishes to resign applies for the post ofS teward of the Chiltern Hu ndreds'.This is a job with no dut ies and no salary.Tech - nically,howeve r, it is 'an office of profit unde r the Crown' {i.e. a job given by the mon arch with rewards attached to it) .According to ancient practice, a person cannot be both an MP and hold a post of this nature at the same time because Parliament must be inde pende nt of the monarch . (This is why high ranking civil servants and army officers are not allowed to be MPs.) As a result , the holder of this ancient post is autom atically disqua lified from the House of Commons and the by- election can go ahead! *Lab our was the largest p art y but had fewer than half the seats. Please purchase PDF Split-Merge on www.verypdf.com to remove this watermark. . m od ern polit- ical parties (see chapter 6) . These days, of course, nearly everybody votes for a candidate because he or she bel on gs to a particular party. But. 'party election broadcasts'. Each party also holds a daily televised news conference. All of this put s the empha sis on the national party pers ona lities rather than on local