Political Journalism - British Civilisation

Regarding the objective of British civilization courses, studying the political aspect of such a great culture would add a significant added value to our perception of the country. Indeed, the question that would be asked beyond the royalty of Britain would be as following: Who are the major political actors that had marked Britain between 1997 and today?

The first figure that really marked Britain between 1997 and 2007 would be Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, better known as Tony Blair. Tony became a member of parliament in 1983 to obtain then the status of the leader of the labor party. Actually, under his leadership, the party entered a new milestone called “new labor”. Indeed, this latter declared opposition to the traditional conception of socialism and supported out loud for a new perception of the party that would introduce capitalism.

Then, Tony had been named as prime minister between 1992 and 2007. Under his mandate, he introduced new economic and social policies. Indeed, he claimed for the independence of the British bank, he also followed very closely the American diplomacy with foreigner after the 09/11 bomb attacks. Moreover, he was accused of misleading parliament so that he could win the debate in favor of Irak War. He also had been accused of cash for honors and failed in improving British health services and education. During his mandate, he gave more rights to lesbians, gays, bisexual and transsexuals. His biggest success was his contribution to the process of peace in Northern Ireland.

Then, from 2007 to 2009, the second important figure was Gordon Brown. Before being named as prime minister and leader of labor party, Gordon was the Chancellor of the Exchequer under the labor government. During his mandate, he allowed mass immigration unlike Tony Blair who introduced a restrictive foreign policy. He also brought the national minimum wage for low paid workers. Indeed, He claimed to be the one who took out millions from poverty. However, Gordon Brown was far from being the favorite of British. In fact, this latter sold gold at low prices and ruined the pension industry by taxing some pension investments. During his mandate, the labor party surprisingly lost elections because of the following reasons: Firstly, everything Gordon did was to bankrupt Britain by increasing expenses ; secondly, the Irak War was voted for meanwhile the British population was against ; and finally, the mass immigration policy had got terrible consequences on the the increase of illegal immigrants.

After having introduced two big figures who marked Britain, I will explain the key elements of the United Kingdom voting system.

The first thing to know about British voting system is all its rules. To vote, citizens have to be minimum 18 and registered in the electoral register. Also, they can vote at a polling station, by post or by proxy. Indeed, British citizens, commonwealth citizens and citizens of the Irish Republic have all the right to vote.

Furthermore, British voting system is divided to six types of elections: general elections, devolved parliament and assemblies, European parliament, local elections and police and crime commissioner elections. Besides, the parliament is also divided to two sections; the upper house (House of Lords) and the lower house (House of Commons).

Concerning the general elections, these happen every five

...