Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
recently the center-left Liberal Democrats (“Lib Dems”) have made inroads, and the cur-
rent administration is a coalition between the Lib Dems and Tories.
Strangely, Britain's “constitution” is not one single document; the government's struc-
tures and policies are based on centuries of tradition, statutes, and doctrine, and much of it
is not actually in writing. While this might seem potentially troublesome—if not danger-
ous—the British body politic takes pride in its ethos of civility and mutual respect, which
has long made this arrangement work.
The prime minister is the chief executive. He or she is not elected directly by voters;
rather, he or she assumes power as the head of the party that wins a majority in Parlia-
mentary elections. In the interest of protocol, the Queen symbolically invites the winner
to form a “government” (administration). Instead of imposing term limits, the Brits allow
their prime ministers to choose when to leave office. The ruling party also gets to choose
when to hold elections, as long as it's within five years of the previous one—so prime min-
isters carefully schedule elections for times that (they hope) their party will win. (Break-
ing with tradition, David Cameron's government announced their election date as soon as
they took office: May 7, 2015.) When an election is announced, the Queen dissolves the
Parliament so the parties can focus on a short-and-sweet, one-month campaign.
In the 1980s, Conservatives were in charge under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
and Prime Minister John Major. As proponents of traditional, Victorian val-
ues—community, family, hard work, thrift, and trickle-down economics—they took a
Reaganesque approach to Britain's serious social and economic problems. In ending
costly government subsidies to old-fashioned heavy industries, they caused many dated
factories to close (earning working-class ire), but also nudged Britain toward a more 21st-
century economy.
In 1997, a huge Labour victory brought Tony Blair to the prime ministership. Labour
began shoring up a social-service system (health care, education, minimum wage) under-
cut by years of Conservative rule. Blair started out as a respected and well-liked PM, but
his legacy became tarnished after he followed US President George W. Bush into war
with Iraq. In 2007, Blair's Chancellor of the Exchequer and longtime colleague, Gordon
Brown, succeeded him as prime minister. Elections in May of 2010 pitted a floundering
Brown (who never achieved Blair's level of popularity) against a Conservative oppon-
ent, David Cameron, and a third-party Liberal Democrat challenger, Nick Clegg. No party
won the number of seats needed for a majority, but the Conservatives and the Lib Dems
formed a coalition government (the first since World War II)—vaulting David Cameron
into the prime ministership. While Cameron's push for “austerity” (government-spending
cutbacks) was initially met with approval, the promised results have not materialized; the
election scheduled for May of 2015 will be a referendum on his approach.
Search WWH ::




Custom Search