POLITICAL

PARTIES.
Anna Serbyn
Iryna Starukh
THE FIRST POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UK: WHIGS AND TORIES (THE
MAIN FACTS FROM HISTORY AND ITS MAIN FEATURES)
THE LABOUR PARTY (THE MAIN FACTS FROM HISTORY AND ITS
MAIN TODAYS’ FEATURES)
THE CONSERVATIVE PARTY (FREQUENTLY CALLED THE TORIES) (THE
MAIN FACTS FROM HISTORY AND ITS MAIN TODAYS’ FEATURES),
THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY (KNOWN AS THE LIB DEMS) (THE
MAIN FACTS FROM HISTORY AND ITS MAIN TODAYS’ FEATURES)
England has the oldest parliament in the world. The English
parliament met for the first time at the Palace of Westminster in
the year 1265, but it took more than four centuries before the
concept of "political parties" gave a new dimension to political
life in Britain.
Before the birth of political parties in the seventeenth century,
the English parliament consisted of aristocrats and wealthy men
who formed alliances and majorities based on specific factors or
loyalties.

Print of the Palace of Westminster, before it burnt down in 1834

 THE FIRST POLITICAL PARTIES IN THE UK:
WHIGS AND TORIES
 Whig—whatever its origin in  Tory was an Irish term
Scottish Gaelic—was a term suggesting a papist outlaw and
applied to horse thieves and, was applied to those who
later, to Scottish supported the hereditary right
Presbyterians; it connoted of James despite his Roman
nonconformity and rebellion Catholic faith.
and was applied to those
who claimed the power of
excluding the heir from the
throne.

Until the early 20th century, alone or in

coalition with other groups, these two
political parties in turn formed
successive British governments, based
on the results of parliamentary
elections.
WHIGS TORIES

 party of the liberal and reforming  monarchists and

aristocracy. traditionalists
 attracted people more favorable to  played a relatively small
constitutional reforms role in the political life of
 832 led the most significant the United Kingdom.
modernization of the British  re-emerged as a major force
Parliament, the Reform Act
in British politics in 1770
 became the most important
element of a union of Whigs and  became the Conservative
Radicals who took the name Party in 1834
"Liberal Party"
THE LABOUR PARTY
After the First World War, a new party came to power in the
British Parliament, the Labour Party.

The Labour Party was born at the turn of the 20th century out of
the frustration of working-class people at their inability to field
parliamentary candidates through the Liberal Party, which at
that time was the dominant social-reform party in Britain.

In 1900 the Trades Union Congress (the national federation of

British trade unions) cooperated with the Independent Labour
Party (founded in 1893) to establish a Labour Representation
Committee, which took the name Labour Party in 1906.
In 1924, with Liberal support, James Ramsay MacDonald
formed the first Labour government, though his minority
administration was brought down less than one year later over
questions of its sympathy for the new Soviet state and over
alleged communist influence within the party.

In 1931 the party suffered one of the severest crises in its

history when, faced with demands to cut public expenditure as a
condition for receiving loans from foreign banks, MacDonald
Ramsay MacDonald
defied the objections of most Labour officials and formed a
coalition government with Conservatives and Liberals.
The party remained out of power until 1940,
when Labour ministers joined a wartime
coalition government under Winston Churchill.
Under the leadership of Prime Minister Clement Attlee, the Labour governments
of the following six years built on the state’s recent experience of wartime
intervention to construct a postwar political consensus based on a mixed
economy, a much more extensive system of social welfare (including a National
Health Service), and a commitment to the pursuit of full employment.

Clement Attlee
 Logo of the
NHS in
Labour served in the wartime coalition of 1940–1945, England
after which Clement Attlee's Labour government
established the National Health Service and expanded
the welfare state from 1945 to 1951.

*The welfare state is a form of government in which the state protects and
promotes the economic and social well-being of the citizens, based upon the
principles of equal opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public
responsibility for citizens unable to avail themselves of the minimal
provisions for a good life. Sociologist T. H. Marshall described the modern
welfare state as a distinctive combination of democracy, welfare, and
capitalism.

Under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan, Labour

again governed from 1964 to 1970 and 1974 to 1979.

In the 1990s, Tony Blair took Labour to the

centre as part of his New Labour project which
governed under Blair and then Gordon Brown
from 1997 to 2010.
 The Labour Party currently forms the Official
Opposition in the Parliament of the United
Kingdom, having won the second-largest number of
seats in the 2019 general election. The leader of the
party and leader of the opposition is Keir Starmer.
Labour is the largest party in the Welsh Parliament,
being the main party in the current Welsh
government. The party is the third-largest in the
Scottish Parliament.

Labour is a member of the Party of European

Socialists and Progressive Alliance, and holds
observer status in the Socialist International. The
party includes semi-autonomous Scottish and Welsh
branches, and supports the Social Democratic and
Labour Party (SDLP) in Northern Ireland, although
it still organises there. As of January 2020, Labour
has 580,000 registered members, the largest
membership of any party in Europe.[5]
Labour Party
 CONSERVATIVE PARTY
British conservatism has proved unusually resilient, having succeeded in adapting
itself to changing political and social agendas. The origins of the Conservative
Party can be traced to the 'Tory' faction which emerged in the later seventeenth
century. This 'Tory Party' established a secure hold on government between 1783
and 1830, first under the Younger Pitt and then Lord Liverpool.

It was in the wake of these upheavals that the

name 'Conservative' first began to be used, as Peel
sought to rally the opponents of further reform in
the mid-1830s. He was successful in drawing
support back to the party and became Prime
Minister after winning the election of 1841.
THE CONTINUOUS MODERN HISTORY OF THE CONSERVATIVE
PARTY BEGINS WITH THE ERA OF DISRAELI

IN 1866 THE COLLAPSE OF THE WHIG MINISTRY ALLOWED A

MINORITY CONSERVATIVE ADMINISTRATION UNDER THE 14TH
EARL OF DERBY TO TACKLE THE QUESTION OF EXTENDING
THE FRANCHISE.

DISRAELI FOUNDED WHAT BECAME THE CENTRAL PILLARS OF

THE PARTY ORGANISATION: THE NATIONAL UNION, WHICH
BEGAN AS A MODEST GATHERING IN 1867, AND THE CENTRAL
OFFICE, ESTABLISHED IN 1870.

The position of the Conservative Party was becoming

much stronger in the final quarter of the nineteenth
century.
THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE MODERN CONSERVATIVE PARTY IS
DRAWN HEAVILY FROM THE LANDOWNING AND MIDDLE
CLASSES—ESPECIALLY BUSINESSMEN, MANAGERS, AND
PROFESSIONALS.
THE CONSERVATIVES WERE THE BIGGEST PARTY IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS, WITH 298 MPS OUT OF 650 SEATS, WHEN PARLIAMENT WAS
DISSOLVED ON 6 NOVEMBER 2019.

Leader:Boris Johnson.

He became prime minister without a general election in July

this year when the ruling Conservative Party elected him
leader. He is one of the UK's most recognisable politicians and
was a leading figure in the Vote Leave campaign during the
2016 EU referendum.

The Conservatives need to elect 28 more MPs than they had

when Parliament was dissolved to form a government on
their own, without having to seek a coalition deal with other
parties.
 THE PARTY PUBLISHED ITS MANIFESTO, GET BREXIT DONE, UNLEASH BRITAIN'S
POTENTIAL, ON 24 NOVEMBER. IT SETS OUT ITS DETAILED PROGRAMME FOR
GOVERNMENT IF IT WINS POWER.

Here are five policies that feature in it:

 Leave the EU in January and get Brexit "done" early in
2020

 Bring in an Australian-style points-based system to control

immigration

 20,000 more police officers over the next three years in

England and Wales

 Increase the number of NHS nurses by 50,000

 No raise in the rate of income tax, VAT or National

Insurance
THE LIBERAL DEMOCRATIC PARTY
Liberal Party, a British political party that emerged in the mid-
19th century as the successor to the historic Whig Party.

The Liberals continued as a minor party until 1988, when they

merged with the Social Democratic Party to form what is now
called the Liberal Democratic Party (q.v.).

After Britain’s First (electoral) Reform Act of 1832, the mainly

aristocratic Whigs were joined in the House of Commons. By
1839 Lord John Russell was referring to “the Liberal party” in
his letters to Queen Victoria. Russell’s administration of 1846
is sometimes regarded as the first Liberal government;

The main achievement of the Liberal Party under Gladstone

was its reforms.
By the early 20th century the Liberal Party seemed moribund,
but a Conservative split helped the Liberals to victory.
In 1915, during World War the Liberal H.H.Asquith formed a
national coalition government with the Conservative and
Labour parties.
Liberals clustered into two distinctly different camps, centred
on the rival personalities of Asquith and his successor, David
Lloyd George.

The Liberal Party’s 20th-century nadir came in the 1950s,

when it polled as little as 2.5 percent of the popular vote and
when serious consideration was given to merging with the
Conservatives.

Asquith's Liberal government was brought down in May 1915

 21 CENTURY
By the 20th Century, liberal democracy has triumphed over other economic, social
and political systems.
There are many things we can thank liberal democracy for, as generally for most
people, we live in a better world - improved healthcare, longer life spans, we are
better educated, and technology has given us many economic and quality of life
improvements.
The governance, economic and social institutions that have served us well in the
last century don't seem to be as effective anymore. We are facing a climate crisis
and technology is going to revolutionise the way we live, work and play.
People don't feel that liberal democracy speak for them nor help them with their
aspirations; and the vacuum is being filled by populism.
Liberal democracy will not regain credibility if it does not change the current
economic system that continues to exploit cheap labour, exploit world resources
that degrades our planet and funnel wealth to an elite few.