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1->''"Wherefore we will and firmly order that the English Church be free, and that the men in our kingdom have and hold all the aforesaid liberties, rights, and concessions, well and peaceably, freely and quietly, fully and wholly, for themselves and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all respects and in all places forever, as is aforesaid. An oath, moreover, has been taken, as well on our part as on the part of the barons, that all these conditions aforesaid shall be kept in good faith and without evil intent. Given under our hand -- the above named and many others being witnesses -- in the meadow which is called Runnymede, between Windsor and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June, in the seventeenth year of our reign."''
2-->--Final article of ''Magna Carta'', signed by the barons and UsefulNotes/KingJohnOfEngland
3
4The politics of the UsefulNotes/UnitedKingdom, plain and simple -- albeit, [[HollywoodCuisine nowhere near as much so (nor as bland) as the food]].
5
6[[foldercontrol]]
7
8[[folder: Legal definition and status]]
9
10The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a constitutional monarchy, meaning that it is officially "ruled" by a monarch (currently UsefulNotes/CharlesIII, since 2022) whose powers are controlled by constitutional law. In practice, the monarch is a near-powerless[[note]]While the monarch retains certain "reserve" powers, exercising them would provoke a constitutional crisis of truly epic proportions. However, the existence of these powers, plus the fact that the UK armed forces are theoretically personally loyal to the monarch, not the government of the day, provides a critical defence for the citizens of the UK from any attempt by a government to become a dictatorship.[[/note]] symbolic figurehead and the country is governed by its legislature: a parliament comprising the House of Commons, whose members are elected to their seats, and the House of Lords, whose members inherit or are appointed to their seats.\
11\
12Although Britain has a parliamentary system and the Prime Minister (Rishi Sunak, appointed 25 October 2022, who is the first British Asian and Hindu Prime Minister), the ''de facto'' head of government, is supposed to be simply the executive/chief spokesperson of a governing political party, some prime ministers from the late 20th century on, most notably UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher and UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, have tended towards a 'presidential' executive style of rule. More concisely, the monarch is head of state and the prime minister is head of government, compared to a nation like [[UsefulNotes/AmericanPoliticalSystem the US]] where the head of state and head of government are the same person, the president, who functions independently of the legislature rather than being part of it.\
13\
14An extremely important thing to note about the British government is that it is roughly synonymous with Parliament (the civil service notwithstanding): all authority flows from Westminster. Indeed, the "keystone" of the British constitutional order as identified by the celebrated scholar [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._V._Dicey A.V. Dicey]] is this: "Parliament ... has ... the right to make or unmake any law whatever, and further, that no person or body is recognized by the law of England as having a right to override or set aside the legislation of parliament."[[note]]Indeed, it has been said that if the British Parliament wanted to make it illegal for an American to smoke on the streets of Washington, D.C., it could. Enforcing that law would be another matter.[[/note]]\
15\
16The roots of this system are ''spectactularly'' old. Like, 800-900 years old even discounting the propaganda of the 19th-century Whig historians (who would have it that English popular government dates back to the time of UsefulNotes/AlfredTheGreat). But it's indisputably true that Parliament as an institution dates back to no later than Simon de Montfort's Parliament, called in 1265, and that this Parliament--which included elected knights of the shire and burgesses/citizens from the towns/cities in addition to great magnates and churchmen--did its level best to turn [[UsefulNotes/HenryTheThird Henry III]] into a PuppetKing. It failed, mostly because de Montfort made some strategic miscalculations. That said, Parliament remained and developed over the decades; by the middle reign of UsefulNotes/EdwardTheFirst, the inclusion of elected representatives had become a permanent feature of the system (specifically the Model Parliament, called in 1290). The separation of these elected representatives from the magnates and churchmen into the House of Commons and House of Lords (respectively) dates from about the reign of Edward III in the 14th century.\
17\
18That said, the current setup is a result of the English Civil War (1641–51), which ended with the monarchy handing over virtually all its power (which in the Tudor era had been ''de facto'' absolute) to Parliament -- a process helped by the fact that Kings George I and II barely spoke English and didn't much care for governing Britain anyway -- and incidentally resembles [[HobbesWasRight Thomas Hobbes]]' conception of government. In any case, though this sounds rather scary at first -- in theory, one Act of Parliament could kill British liberty[[note]]Indeed, a single amendment to the Constitution could also kill American liberty; however, such would require two-thirds of votes in each house of Congress and the assent of the legislatures of three-quarters of the states. This has only happened 18 times (once to enact the amendments that form the Bill of Rights over the 1789–91 period, and seventeen times since then) since 1789.[[/note]] -- the UK's (now former) membership in UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion and its institutions, as well as a couple of other well-enforced treaties, have added a measure of restriction to the actions of Parliament; for the first time, Parliament has to deal with potentially making illegal laws.[[note]]Although Parliament still asserts legislative supremacy over Europe and intended to keep applying an anti-terrorism law partially found illegal by Europe. Generally, though, European Court rulings work the same as Supreme Court decisions in America: they won't be enforced for whatever time the law is still on the books.[[/note]]\
19\
20Oh, and on the topic of "constitutional", it's important to note that the UK does not have a "codified constitution" (i.e. a single document called "The Constitution" that spells out how the government is supposed to work, a concept largely popularized by the UsefulNotes/UnitedStates); it's an "''un''codified constitution" made up of whatever laws and legal decisions that The Powers That Be decide will be the constitution.\
21\
22The complex and controversial events following the 2016 referendum are showing that it is, in fact, far from simple or easy for a government to bypass the House of Commons.
23
24[[/folder]]
25
26[[folder: The House of Commons]]
27
28The House of Commons is staffed by Members of Parliament ([=MPs=]) who are elected by each constituency. These are analogous to a congressional district in the US-- a large city will have multiple constituencies. A constituency is represented by a single MP. Each of these constituencies has an individual name. Every decade or so, the boundaries are redrawn by the non-partisan Boundary Commission, which does take representations from the parties.\
29\
30The House of Commons is elected for a period of five years, with the calling of an election at the Prime Minister's choosing at any time, which was the case up to 2011 and has been the case since 2022. Between 2011 and 2022, elections could only be held every five years, or earlier either (a) the government loses a vote of confidence or (b) two-thirds of the entire House of Commons votes in favour of dissolving it.[[note]]The general elections of both 2017 and 2019 were called in the latter way.[[/note]] [=MPs=] are elected on the basis that the candidate winning the most votes is declared the winner, even if they only have one more vote than the next candidate when there are multiple candidates; i.e. it is not necessary to win more than 50% of the votes cast. (No British MP has ever literally [[DecidedByOneVote won by just one vote]], although several seats have been won by just ''two'' votes, most recently North East Fife at the 2017 general election. If the top two candidates tied for number of votes, the winner would be declared by drawing lots.)\
31\
32Results are only given for the whole constituency, not individual wards. When boundaries change, the "results" of the previous election for the new seats are estimated by the media from local council results. These should be treated with some caution.\
33\
34When in the Commons, [=MPs=] address each other not by name, but as "The Honourable Member for [name of constituency]" or "My Honourable friend" for someone from their own party, or "The Honourable gentleman/lady" for those from a different party. It's a holdover from the days when Parliament had to meet in secret to avoid detection, imprisonment, and execution by the agents of the King (who is popularly given to be Charles I). There are some varying titles, such as "Right Honourable", used for members of the Privy Council, "Learned" (pronounced "learn-ed") for [=MPs=] who are also [[UsefulNotes/BritishCourts barristers]], and [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs "Right Honourable and Learned" for MPs who are barristers and members of the Privy Council]]. While rarely used today, there is also the "Right Honourable and Gallant" for former Military Officers (UsefulNotes/ClementAttlee, a Major in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, being one example; his political foe UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill was fastidious in referring to him as such).\
35\
36Parliamentary debates and question times are far more rowdy than the (modern) United States Congress, with creative insults and heckling being the order of the day -- the late Creator/RobinWilliams once memorably described it as "Congress with a two-drink minimum". However, it's pretty much all verbal, and {{Floor Fight}}s are very rare. The chamber is presided over by the Speaker or one of his/her deputies. The Speaker is a [[LawfulNeutral non-partisan figure]] -- once elected speaker, they renounce their party affiliation, and at a general election they will stand as "The Speaker seeking re-election". It is convention that the major parties do not contest the Speaker's constituency, so it is highly unlikely that they will ''not'' be re-elected.[[note]]In the 2001 and 2005 elections, when Speaker Michael Martin (previously Labour) sought re-election in his constituency in Glasgow, Scotland, the Scottish National Party, whose constitution compels it to field candidates in every Scottish constituency, challenged him (though they weren't a major party at the time).[[/note]] The Deputy Speakers do not have to leave their party, but still they must remain impartial and do not take part in partisan politics -- although they may take part in politics relating to their constituency. The Speaker can be a very powerful figure, especially in cases when the government has a thin majority, as was demonstrated by former Speaker Sir John Bercow (much to the irritation of the governing Conservative Party which, ironically, he had been a member of).\
37\
38During debates in the Commons, all remarks are addressed to the Speaker; speaking directly to your opposite number and using words like "you" gets you a slapped wrist. Particularly controversial media issues may be raised in Parliament, including [[http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmhansrd/vo050117/debtext/50117-03.htm#50117-03_spnew10 this gem]] [[Series/BrassEye from a Conservative MP]]. The current Speaker (as of 2019) is Sir Lindsay Hoyle, MP for Chorley since 1997; he served as a Labour MP until he became Speaker. The Speaker, in the event of a tie, will nearly always vote to keep debate open and will almost never vote for a bill, as doing so would create a majority where one did not exist; the main exception is if the bill is a confidence or supply measure -- i.e., if the bill fails, the government collapses and either a new PM and new government must be chosen or new elections must be held -- in which case the Speaker will generally vote in favour.
39
40[[/folder]]
41
42[[folder: Elections]]
43
44There are 650 elected [=MPs=], all but two of whom[[note]]Hoyle was elected to be speaker by the Commons membership just before the 2019 general election was called, and he was re-elected in his constituency while speaker as noted above. Neale Hanvey, first elected in 2019 for Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath, was originally nominated by the Scottish National Party but suspended from the party during the election campaign (albeit after nominations closed) when he was accused of making antisemitic comments on social media.[[/note]] are usually members of a political party. Westminster is most near to a "two-and-a-half-party" system, with the two dominant parties since the 1920s being Labour and the Conservatives. The Liberals had been the second major party prior to the formation of a coalition government with the Conservatives in the 1920s, which decimated their support in favour of Labour. They and their successor party, the Liberal Democrats, found themselves the perpetual third party for most elections until 2015 -- when, after forming another coalition government with the Conservatives in 2010, they found themselves [[DemotedToExtra reduced at the 2015 election from 57 MPs to eight and replaced as the third largest party by the SNP]].\
45\
46The first-past-the-post (FPTP) electoral system slightly favours the two main parties and heavily disadvantages the Liberal Democrats (and small parties in general), reflecting the two main parties' concentrations of support in certain areas (urban and working-class areas for Labour, affluent and rural areas for the Conservatives), and the Lib Dems having a fairly even support spread nationwide. In theory, the Lib Dems could even beat the Conservatives into second and Labour could remain the ''largest'' party with ''twice'' as many seats as the Lib Dems. The voting system can cause political parties to ''lose'' seats even though their popular vote increases (or, more rarely, vice versa), and indeed has sometimes. This happens to the minor parties more than Labour and the Conservatives, although Labour actually managed to lose an election that way: in 1951, candidates from UsefulNotes/ClementAttlee's Labour beat UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill's Conservatives by almost a quarter-million votes collectively, but ended up with ''twenty-six fewer'' seats. The same happened to the Conservatives in the June 2017 election: despite their popular vote share increasing by several percentage points to levels unseen since the 1980s, they managed to lose their overall majority because Labour enjoyed a larger jump in vote share and won its own largest share of the vote in twenty years.\
47\
48Proposals have been made to switch to a more proportional system, with ultimately little success -- the main argument against the change was that it would almost always ensure weak, minority governments or coalitions. Due to the Liberal Democrats (who have favoured electoral reform for decades) forming a coalition government with the Conservatives after the 2010 election, a referendum was promised on the voting system as part of the coalition agreement. On 5 May 2011, coinciding with local elections, the nationwide referendum was held on whether to switch from the existing first-past-the-post system to alternative vote (AV), which if passed was expected to represent smaller parties like the Lib Dems and the Greens more fairly. There were vocal campaigns both for and against the switch to AV. Due partly to a legendarily terrible "Yes"-side campaign that will be autopsied for years to come, it was defeated resoundingly, leading to the coalition becoming a lot more adversarial ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06terMUGHo0 summary, in musical form]]). Given the levels of support that parties such as the Liberal Democrats, Green Party and UKIP tend to receive nationwide result in disproportionately few (if any) seat returns, and the obvious disgruntlement it causes them, it is unlikely this issue has gone away just yet.\
49\
50It is worth noting that because a general election is fought over 650 small constituencies, most of which change little (if at all) between elections, small political parties can gain ground by concentrating all their efforts on one constituency. This is how the Green Party won their only seat in Brighton Pavilion in 2010 (the first FPTP election a party called Green won ''in the world''), and why UKIP didn't win any despite having more support nationwide. Any parliamentary constituency can tend to become a two-horse race with a bunch of also-rans, but which of the parties are the two frontrunners depends on the social and economic characteristics of the constituency. For example, Scottish seats tend to be SNP–Labour contests (in urban areas) or SNP–Lib Dem contests (in rural and island areas), with some SNP–Tory constituencies now appearing following backlash from independence uncertainty. Southern England tends to be a field of Tory–Lib Dem battlegrounds outside of urban Labour areas, and some of the deepest rural areas were shaping up as Tory–UKIP battlegrounds prior to UKIP's vote collapse in 2017.
51
52[[/folder]]
53
54[[folder: Forming a government]]
55
56If a party can command a majority, it is often considered the ruling party. Their elected leader, chosen by the party through varying methods,[[note]]Labour and the Lib Dems by the single transferable vote, the Tories by run-off voting.[[/note]] then chooses a cabinet of which they serve as ''primus inter pares'' (first among equals). These men and women are responsible for various departments of government; there are currently 27 cabinet members (including the Prime Minister) who between them hold 42 positions — during the Labour governments of Blair and Brown, Harriet Harman acquired the nickname "Three Hats Harman" for having three separate posts. They're often referred to as "The X Secretary", but their actual title is "The Secretary of State for X"—except for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, often called just "The Chancellor".[[note]]In most countries, this specific position is called "Minister of Finance"; in the States, it's "Secretary of the Treasury".[[/note]] Cabinet membership is not subject to parliamentary approval and may not even be along party lines (although, these days, it nearly always is), so it chops and changes frequently, with much attendant press speculation.\
57\
58Contrary to public assumptions, and the press' frequent bellyaching, prime ministers are ''not'' directly elected (except as MP for their own constituency), so it means nothing to call a PM "unelected" except to take a swipe at a PM you don't like. UsefulNotes/GordonBrown got a ''lot'' of this to the point of being the press' ButtMonkey in the run-up to the 2010 election, despite the fact that, of the 23 prime ministers since 1900, fourteen ascended to the position in the middle of a government.[[note]]The last PM to be both appointed as the result of a general election victory and dismissed as the result of a loss was UsefulNotes/EdwardHeath, who won in 1970 and lost in March 1974.[[/note]] Even Winston Churchill was "unelected" for his first run at the premiership during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII (in fact, the Churchill Conservatives never actually "won" a democratic election — his second government in 1951 was, as detailed above, a fluke of the system as his party took considerably fewer votes than Labour). In fairness, there is some merit to this criticism: elections often swing entirely based on the personal popularity of leaders, and both of the main parties are ideologically varied enough that the direction of government can change dramatically based on which faction the leader is from. The Labour Party, for instance, has had five leaders in the 21st century, varying from Tony Blair, a centrist (to his allies. His enemies felt he had no principles whatsoever) who had the confidence of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, to Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left-wing activist who has been variously described as anything from a "[[https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/can-europe-make-it/jeremy-corbyn-mainstream-scandinavian-social-democrat/ mainstream [Scandanavian] social democrat]]" to a "[[https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/corbyns-hard-left-blueprint-revealed-7t7ch53wz far-left]]" Marxist.\
59\
60Below these people are the Ministers of State and the Parliamentary Under-Secretaries of State ([[FunWithAcronyms PUSSYs]]). Below them are the Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPS), who are unpaid lackeys for the Cabinet members. They sit behind the front bench at Prime Minister's Questions, with the result that the camera cuts their heads off. Those who are not chosen or decline offers for the Cabinet or for junior ministerial office are called "backbenchers", as opposed to those who sit on the Government "front bench".\
61\
62The official title of the largest party that is not in government is "His [or Her] Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition". Fittingly for a British institution, the name of this post began as a joke; the term was coined in 1826 by Whig MP John Hobhouse, who was riffing on the term "His Majesty's Government" in the midst of a critique of the policies of then-Foreign Secretary UsefulNotes/GeorgeCanning. The idea took off, however, as many came to realise that it was a much better way of understanding the relationship between Government and Opposition than had been before — namely, rather than the Government regarding the Opposition as just a few steps shy of treasonous, Government and Opposition would emphasise their common loyalty to the Crown and the institution of Parliament while simultaneously disagreeing about everything else.\
63\
64The Opposition's job description is to question and hold to account "His Majesty's Government" to ensure that any policies have been well thought-out. The leader of the largest party out of government is also known as "The Leader of the Opposition" and is a member of the Privy Council. The Opposition party will also select a cabinet, known as a Shadow Cabinet. [[TheOmniscientCouncilOfVagueness Despite sounding very cool]], this cabinet does not do anything in practical terms. Instead, their job is to call on their cabinet counterpart during meetings in the Commons, typically to question their decisions (the other [=MPs=], including the backbenchers, can also do this to whomever they wish). They also work out the party's policies in relation to their position — e.g., the Shadow Secretary for Education will look at schools and universities — ready for the next election. The smaller parties select their own "frontbench teams" too, where appropriate, depending on the number of [=MPs=] they possess.\
65\
66Unlike in the United States, changes of government occur very quickly. It is possible, and common, for the polls to close at 10 p.m. on Thursday, the result be more-or-less certain at about 3 a.m. on Friday, the defeated prime minister to go to Buckingham Palace to resign before lunch on Friday, with the new PM meeting the King and being invited to form a government that Friday afternoon, and cabinet posts sorted out over the weekend. Obviously, there are times when the result goes right down to the wire and the result not known until breakfast the following morning, most lately in 1992 (Conservative majority of only 20), 2010, and 2017 (which resulted in hung parliaments).\
67\
68The following list includes political parties with regional representation or better,[[note]]And two that do not, but are included for completion.[[/note]] ordered by numbers of [=MPs=] (Members of Parliament, out of 650), [=MSPs=] (Members of the Scottish Parliament, out of 129), [=MLAs=] (Members of the Northern Ireland Assembly, out of 90), and [=AMs=] (Members of the National Assembly of Wales, out of 60; or the London Assembly, out of 25), where applicable.
69
70[[/folder]]
71
72[[folder: The Conservative Party]]
73
74[[quoteright:205:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/conservative_logo_2006svg.png]]
75
76'''Current leader:''' UsefulNotes/RishiSunak (MP, Richmond (Yorkshire)[[note]]This is the official name of his constituency, to avoid it being confused for the now-defunct constituency of Richmond in Surrey, as well as the extant constituency of Richmond Park in London.[[/note]]).[[labelnote:Regional leaders]]\
77'''Scotland:''' Douglas Ross (MP, Moray and MSP, Highlands & Islands).\
78'''Wales:''' Andrew RT Davies (MS, South Wales Central).\
79'''London:''' Susan Hall (AM, additional member).[[/labelnote]]\
80'''House of Commons status:''' Largest party, current government.[[labelnote:Elsewhere]]\
81'''House of Lords:''' Largest grouping, current government.\
82'''Scottish Parliament:''' Second-largest party, Official Opposition.\
83'''Welsh Parliament:''' Second-largest party, Official Opposition.\
84'''Northern Ireland Assembly:''' No seats.\
85'''London Assembly:''' Second-largest party.[[/labelnote]]\
86\
87Formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, indicating their position on UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion (and now the 'Scottish Question'), although this isn't always emphasised -- especially given that 2019 polling indicates that most of their voters would be happy to give up Northern Ireland (and possibly Scotland) to "get Brexit done." The party which currently has the PM and the Cabinet (executive branch). The traditional party for rural voters, suburban voters, the aspirational working class/NouveauRiche types, and the wealthy. They have tended to take a more populist approach to politics in recent years, especially during the leaderships of UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher and UsefulNotes/DavidCameron, and until the 2016 referendum, were usually perceived as a centre-right party with a middle-class focus and classical liberal economic tendencies.[[note]]Especially under Thatcher and Cameron, the Tories have enacted wide-ranging cuts to attempt to close the deficit.[[/note]] Having moved towards the middle for about ten years in the 21st century (though with some right-wing traditionalist opinions such as on fox-hunting and benefits), following the 2016 EU referendum, they've moved sharply back to the right under UsefulNotes/TheresaMay and UsefulNotes/BorisJohnson (forced on May by the powerful pro-Brexit 'Economic Research Group' of backbenchers, and embraced by Johnson), courting former Labour working-class voters. The popular opinion between 1997 and 2015 was that they and Labour had almost converged. With the Brexit referendum and the ascension of Jeremy Corbyn, emblem of the Labour Party's left wing, that has since changed, even with the rise of Corbyn's more centrist successor, Sir Keir Starmer.\
88\
89Traditionally they have been popular in the South-East of England and rural areas. The party colour is blue, and their icon appears to be a child's drawing of a tree, supposedly an attempt by David Cameron's PR staff to emphasise the party's environmentalist credentials; it also harks back to the traditional symbol of Toryism, the Royal Oak. From 1975 to 2006, the symbol was a torch of liberty. They are popularly known as the "'''Tories'''", a term that [[AppropriatedAppellation originally was an insult against Irish cattle thieves]] and which was the name of the modern party's forebear. Has many detractors they gained under UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher that they've never got rid of, to the point where a good number of Brits sincerely regard the Tories as evil incarnate.\
90\
91While Cameron tried, and largely succeeded, in detoxifying the party's reputation, a faint but nasty smell of Islamophobia and general racism remained. Since 2016, it has driven into overdrive, particularly after twenty-one members of the party's moderate wing walked out of the party in protest in 2019 at Boris Johnson's policies. Since Johnson's former newspaper columns include references to African citizens of Commonwealth states as "picaninnies with watermelon smiles" and to Muslim women wearing burqas as resembling "letterboxes", you can see why. It was also noted how hypocritical it was that Labour was accused of antisemitism when comparably serious instances of bigotry in the Conservatives were barely brought up in the media. Boris Johnson had even written a book, ''Seventy-Two Virgins'', which flat-out engaged in antisemitic stereotyping, referring to people of Jewish descent fiddling election results, despite which [[{{Hypocrite}} Chief Rabbi Mirvis]] [[SelectiveObliviousness praised him as a long-standing friend of the Jewish community!]] This disdain was traditionally held by northerners and the working class, but after the EU referendum of 2016, increasingly younger and urban voters as well. By contrast, in the 2019 election, many of said working-class and/or northern voters opted to vote Conservative (though this was also helped by Farage's Brexit Party, possibly on Trump's orders assisting them, see below), flipping constituencies that had been Labour strongholds since before UsefulNotes/WorldWarII.\
92\
93The Conservatives currently form a majority government in Westminster following the 2019 election, having previously governed as a minority following the loss of their majority in the 2017 election (poor leadership, utterly bland and complacent campaigning, and a rather questionable manifesto were all considered to be factors), relying on the support of the Northern Irish DUP (see below), which while being their only possible ally in the current Parliament, raised a few eyebrows among supporters and detractors alike. Johnson then gambled on another election, and won big, gaining the biggest Conservative majority since the 1980s, gobbling up much of the former "Red Wall" of Labour seats in north Wales and the Midlands/north of England -- old industrial regions that had voted Leave -- which hadn't voted anything ''but'' Labour in generations. He was partially helped by the fact that the Brexit Party leader Farage, supposedly on the orders of US President UsefulNotes/DonaldTrump, formed an unofficial alliance with the Conservatives and only campaigned in non-Conservative constituencies, draining votes away from Labour supporters.\
94\
95A couple of years later, in June 2022, the wheels fell off after a long string of scandals, including the infamous "Partygate" (where raucous parties took place at 10 Downing Street while the rest of the nation, from the Queen downwards, was strictly abiding by COVID restrictions); it became increasingly obvious that Boris would say anything he needed to, no matter how [[BlatantLies obviously untruthful it was]], to get away with whatever he'd done this time, and that he had no loyalty to anyone but himself. Worse, he had become politically toxic, with both former Red Wall seats, taken in 2019, and Blue Wall seats in Tory heartlands that had been in Tory hands for centuries falling in by-elections to Labour and the Liberal Democrats — and the main reason cited by former Tory voters was usually "Boris". Aside from his hardcore loyalists, most Cabinet ministers finally got sick of both this and being marched out to repeat a party line on the news that would often change halfway through the interview, resulting in their public humiliation. Chancellor Rishi Sunak and Health Secretary Sajid Javid resigned within minutes of each other, with an astonishing domino effect — over 40 ministers and aides resigned in the space of 24 hours, three Education Ministers resigned in as many days, and the newly minted Chancellor, Nadhim Zahawi, led a delegation of ministers to Downing Street within a day of taking his position to tell Boris to resign. Finally, Boris gave in and resigned with about as much grace as one could expect (that is, very little, [[NeverMyFault blaming everyone but himself]]), remaining as a caretaker until early September while the Tories began their traditional political knife-fight for the succession, with as many as 11 candidates initially standing. Eventually, Rishi Sunak reached the final round, much as was expected, as did UsefulNotes/LizTruss, which was not. Truss was announced as the winner on 5 September 2022.\
96\
97Truss resigned as Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party on 20 October 2022 — reportedly making her the shortest-serving prime minister in the country's history. The resignation followed the turbulent previous day, when her Home Secretary resigned, a vote on fracking was positioned as a confidence vote, and her Chief Whip and Deputy Chief Whip were both widely reported to have resigned (but then, eventually, stated they were remaining in post). During her resignation speech she stated that she would remain in office as Prime Minister for approximately a week, until her successor was chosen, which turned out to be UsefulNotes/RishiSunak, unopposed (after Boris Johnson had flirted with a very sudden political comeback).\
98\
99Sunak has remained in office ever since, as poll numbers refused to budge and continued to predict a historic Labour majority at the next election - and in the worst cases, Conservative seats in the middling double-figures. As of March 2024, the Tories are once again indulging in their favourite hobby: plotting political regicide. While no clear rival has emerged, it remains unclear who, exactly, will lead the Tories into the next election...\
100\
101The anthem of the Conservative Party is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_ROlkMOL9s Land of Hope and Glory]]", a setting of March No. 1 of the ''Pomp and Circumstance Marches'' (yes, Americans, the ones you play at graduation) by Music/EdwardElgar:
102-->''Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the Free,''
103-->''How shall we extol thee, who are born of thee?''
104-->''Wider still and wider shall thy bounds be set;''
105-->''God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet,''
106-->''God, who made thee mighty, make thee mightier yet.''
107
108[[/folder]]
109
110[[folder: The Labour Party]]
111
112[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/250px-logo_labour_party_svg_2968.png]]
113'''Current leader:''' Sir Keir Starmer (MP, Holborn & St Pancras).[[labelnote:Regional leaders]]\
114'''Scotland:''' Anas Sarwar (MSP, Glasgow).\
115'''Wales:''' Vaughan Gething (First Minister of Wales and MS, Cardiff South & Penarth).\
116'''London:''' Sadiq Khan (Mayor of London).[[/labelnote]]\
117'''House of Commons status:''' Second-largest party, Official Opposition.[[labelnote:Elsewhere]]\
118'''House of Lords:''' Third-largest grouping, Official Opposition.\
119'''Scottish Parliament:''' Third-largest party, in opposition.\
120'''Welsh Parliament:''' Largest party, current government.\
121'''Northern Ireland Assembly:''' Does not stand in Northern Ireland.\
122'''London Assembly:''' Largest party, current mayoralty.[[/labelnote]]\
123\
124Started off as a socialist party that appealed to working people (hence the name) but became more pro-market in the late 1980s and moved closer to the centre under Neil Kinnock and especially Tony Blair, before moving slightly back to the left under Jeremy Corbyn.[[note]]We've skipped over a thumping great chunk of their history here, but it's not something you'd make movies about. Apart from the miners' and general strikes of UsefulNotes/JamesCallaghan's time, but that's another story.[[/note]] In the mid-1990s, Blair dubbed his centrist vision for the party "New Labour", a piece of branding designed to distance Labour from its bitter infighting and more left-wing early-1980s incarnation, which the image-obsessed Blair thought had a negative perception amongst voters; this label came to be used more as a term of abuse by the party's enemies and internal dissenters rather than a badge of honour, and the party itself has since dropped it. There was between 1994 and 2010 a dangerous divide between the Blairites, named after UsefulNotes/TonyBlair, and Brownites, named after UsefulNotes/GordonBrown, though no one was quite sure what the difference was; the general consensus was that Brown was deemed slightly more socialist and Eurosceptic, while Blair was more centrist and pro-European -- and, in the view of his detractors be they leftish, rightish, or centrist, had no discernible principles whatsoever.\
125\
126Officially a left-wing democratic socialist party, the party has taken a 'broad church' approach to working-class politics, inclusive of ideologies ranging from staunch Marxism to centrist "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Way Third Way]]" politics, which has secured their reputation for infighting -- seemingly dispatched by New Labour, but resurgent following the election of Corbyn and the 2016 EU referendum, which has split the party down Leave/Remain lines. They've even flirted with authoritarian right-wing policies, especially with regard to civil liberties -- to the point that a historically very conservative Tory triggered a by-election in 2008 to protest a counter-terrorism bill -- and anything UsefulNotes/PeterMandelson got his hands on, which mostly appeared to be desperate attempts at populism. They are traditionally popular in London, the north of England, Scotland, south Wales, large urban areas, and among trade unionists. Labour's current icon is the rose (a traditional symbol of European social-democratic parties), and the party colour, used in election materials and identification of Labour constituencies on maps, is red.\
127\
128You'll see several Labour members listed as "Lab/Co-Op". This means that they are also sponsored by the Co-operative Party, the political arm of the UK Co-operative movement (as in the supermarket chain Co-op). The Co-op Party is largely identical to Labour, apart from an emphasis on fair trade, and doesn't run candidates itself.\
129\
130Labour lost its majority in the general election of 6 May 2010, and Brown was already planning to resign when the Liberal Democrats began flirting with forming a coalition with both Labour and the Conservatives. Although they made it clear they would only consider a coalition with Labour if Brown resigned, upon learning Brown was already going to resign, they formed a coalition with the Conservatives, citing the pragmatism of greater numbers for passing policy.[[note]]Any Labour–Lib Dem deal in 2010 would still have been short of a majority by 11 seats, and therefore would have required support from the SNP, Plaid Cymru, the Greens, and parties from Northern Ireland.[[/note]] Brown's successor was Ed Miliband, who bested [[SiblingRivalry his brother David]] (and three other candidates who had little to no chance of victory) in a tight leadership election. [[Series/DeadRingers Jon Culshaw]] was reportedly happy, as [[FanNickname Mili-E]] sounds exactly like Culshaw's impression of UsefulNotes/TonyBlair. However, he too suffered a crushing defeat in the 2015 election. At the time this was reported to be from a combination of Labour's lack of a believable alternative to the Conservatives' economic policies and the public's apparent inability to see Miliband personally as prime minister.\
131\
132Miliband resigned shortly after losing, triggering another leadership election. Initially pretty much no one cared, but the elevation of {{dark horse|Victory}} candidate Jeremy Corbyn from outsider to frontrunner to ''winner'' galvanised supporters and the public throughout the contest, with him being seen by many as the only alternative to a "Tory-lite" leader. Corbyn, a veteran socialist and activist from the left wing of Labour, developed enormous popularity among the party's rank and file membership. Most Labour [=MPs=] were less enthusiastic about his leadership, though (he got on the ballot only because about twenty of his colleagues who preferred one of the three more moderate contenders 'lent' him their support), with many fearing his more left-wing views would doom the party in a general election. They turned out to be right, and Corbyn's tenure was marred by conflicts with the Parliamentary Labour Party (which mostly hated him), being sustained by support from members, the powerful unions, and his allies' control of the powerful NEC (National Executive Committee, the party's governing body and equivalent to the RNC or DNC). Following the 2016 EU referendum, where the historically Eurosceptic Corbyn was accused of both half-hearted participation in and deliberate sabotage of his own party's Remain campaign culminated in yet another leadership challenge less than a year into his leadership, but his loyal support among membership helped him win that election by an even greater margin.\
133\
134Press coverage of the Labour Party was rather stacked against them (many UsefulNotes/{{British newspapers}} and their owners having much more incentive to support the Conservatives' right-wing views over Corbyn's radical socialism), often smearing Corbyn personally -- or, since Corbyn was so unbelievably mild-mannered, [[EpicFail trying and failing hilariously]] -- and bringing up the Labour Party's alleged antisemitism.[[note]]It is generally accepted that there was a problem, but that by numbers of people who said or did antisemitic things it was rather less widespread than portrayed. Furthermore, many in the media were very happy to give a pass to people from rival political parties being arguably more antisemitic, including Boris Johnson, who, as noted above, had written a book which engaged in blatant antisemitic stereotyping. Leaked documents have suggested that Corbyn's internal opponents in the Labour Party, who controlled its semiautonomous bureaucracy until at least 2018, may have deliberately failed to deal with antisemitism cases robustly, and Martin Forde's report confirmed that both pro- and anti-Corbyn factions weaponised antisemitism against each other.\
135\
136Which neatly segues into probably his biggest failing and why the general population couldn't see him as any more prime-ministerial than Ed Miliband: an inability to control his own underlings (the very people who are supposed to be on his side) and how badly that would translate to national and international politics, where his previously stated meek demeanour (to the point of coming across as at best easily manipulated) and frequent interviewing gaffes would find little mercy against people who would definitely ''not'' be on his side.[[/note]] Accordingly, many wrote off Labour, predicting a fall even to third-party status in the next election, with a common prediction being that most of their traditional working-class support would migrate to UKIP, leaving Labour to scrap with the Liberal Democrats for the more metropolitan segments of the voting population. Surprisingly, though, they made a net gain of 30 seats in the Commons and broke the Conservative majority in 2017, and the implication that Jeremy Corbyn might ''actually'' be able to win after all, confounded pollsters and more right-wing Labour [=MPs=] alike, further securing his position. However, the knives came out again following dire performances in the 2019 European and general elections.\
137\
138The former was because of Corbyn's ambiguity over Brexit. He was in favour of a "jobs-first Brexit", whatever that meant, and only committed to a second referendum as a last resort -- and that under duress. This was on the rather thin grounds that he wanted to unite the country again after years of polarisation over Europe (translation: he didn't want to lose Labour seats in pro-Leave or pro-Remain areas). This left pro-Leave voters unimpressed, and infuriated the [=MPs=], the members, and younger/more liberal voters, all of whom were ''very'' pro-Remain. Labour promptly got hammered by the resurgent Lib Dems, even losing Islington, ''home of Corbyn's own constituency''. While Corbyn kept his seat in the following general election, many others didn't in a brutal election defeat that left Labour with barely 200 seats (their fewest since 1935) and the Conservatives with their largest majority since 1987. Even worse, the Conservatives smashed the traditional "Red Wall" of Labour seats, (North Wales, northern England and the Midlands), some of which had consistently voted Labour for over a century, by appealing to working-class Leave voters and with help from the Brexit Party acting on the orders of Donald Trump. Corbyn promised to step down, but delayed to try and give himself time to smooth the path for a like-minded successor (the idea being that the problem was not the message, but the messenger -- who himself had been unfairly smeared).\
139\
140The resultant post-mortem and political knife-fight was brief, but brutal, with former Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer winning the 2020 leadership election on the first ballot and gaining control of the NEC. Starmer is a contrast to Corbyn: a relative newcomer, having been only elected as an MP in 2015, his background was as a QC (a very senior defence lawyer) specialising in Human Rights. However, he had a previous association with government as Director for Public Prosecutions (national-level equivalent of a District Attorney, and most senior lawyer in the government after the Attorney General and Solicitor General). Starmer's two-to-one victory over Rebecca Long-Bailey, who was long considered to be Corbyn's heir apparent, has been interpreted as a mandate for a shift back to the political centre -- several of Corbyn's more popular policies and more moderate allies were retained, but the rest were politely but firmly removed, with Starmer's allies taking control of the NEC and the position of General Secretary, while Long-Bailey was ejected from the Shadow Cabinet after an antisemitism-related screw-up on Twitter and (perhaps more importantly) refusing to take the offered opportunity to apologise, delete the Tweet, and keep her job.[[note]]The gist is that she enthusiastically retweeted an interview with long-term Labour supporter [[{{Series/Silk}} Maxine Peake]], who perpetuated a perceived antisemitic conspiracy theory: essentially, that when US police departments trained with the Israeli Defence Forces (which is true) they were taught the specific chokehold with which Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd (which is not, and Peake later apologised and recanted). When Starmer told her to delete the tweet, she instead edited it to say that she didn't agree with everything in the interview, then refused again to take it down. He then fired her.[[/note]] Members on the Labour Left claim that Starmer was just waiting for an excuse to fire her and that it was a tempest in a teacup. Almost everyone else agreed that it was relatively minor, but pointed out that Starmer had reputedly been very happy with Long-Bailey's work, and had accordingly offered her an out. Once she refused that, Labour's still lingering whiff of antisemitism (particularly around the Corbynite left) meant that she'd made herself a serious political liability.\
141\
142In February 2023, the Labour Party was removed from the EHRC's 'special measures' as it had been assessed to be now providing sufficient protection from similar antisemitic bullying going forward. Emboldened by this, the standing down of charismatic SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, and a 20-point poll lead, Starmer stated that Corbyn would definitively not be allowed to stand as a Labour candidate in his constituency of Islington North and threw down the gauntlet to his supporters on the Labour Left, especially Momentum. The gist of the message was 'get with the program or leave', intentionally striking a contrast with the Conservatives, who at the time had three former prime ministers on the backbenches[[note]]Boris Johnson would resign from Parliament and force a by-election that summer.[[/note]] (and a fourth, UsefulNotes/JohnMajor, being very active from outside Parliament and often at cross purposes to the leadership). While Corbyn retains a significant chunk of popularity on the Left of the party, that popularity was further dented by one of his erstwhile allies, Diane Abbott, publicly admitting that the key contention between Corbyn and Starmer was the fact that yes, Corbyn really was a Brexit supporter (which was taken as read, but never confirmed) while Starmer was passionately pro-European -- one of the few things he reliably has in common with most of the Labour Left in the twenty-first century. As for the relationship between him and Starmer, the fact that Starmer's wife is Jewish and they keep Jewish festivals probably didn't help either. Even prominent Corbyn allies have quietly said that they'd much rather he didn't challenge as an Independent in Islington North.\
143\
144The anthem of the Labour Party is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDIuApfVxBg The Red Flag]]", by Jim Connell, to the tune of "O Tannenbaum":[[note]]The left-wing English singer/songwriter Music/BillyBragg notes that Jim Connell meant "The Red Flag" to be sung to a much less dreary tune, "The White Cockade". Bragg's EP of political songs ''The Internationale'' features a version of the song with the original tune.[[/note]]
145-->''Then raise the scarlet standard high,''
146-->''Within its shade we'll live and die,''
147-->''Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,''
148-->''We'll keep the red flag flying here.''
149
150More popularly, however, the anthem [[https://youtu.be/i1zLoG6YeA4 "Oh Jeremy Corbyn"]] has become a trend among young people.
151----
152Since 1927, the Labour Party has been in a permanent coalition with the Co-operative Party, founded in 1917 as the political arm of the co-operative movement (much as Labour was, as previously stated, the political arm of the trade unions). (It has its origins in the Joint Parliamentary Committee of the Co-operative Union, founded 1881, which was primarily a watchdog and lobby group.) The Co-operative Party is actually the fourth largest party in number of [=MPs=], but this is obscured as they run as "Labour and Co-operative Party" (otherwise using Labour's logo and font) and sit on the Parliamentary Labour Group. Besides its defense of co-operative principles, it is, like Labour, a social democratic/democratic socialist party. It is also British Unionist and Pro-Europeanist. Due to its co-operative principles, it doesn't have a Leader, but rather a Chairperson: as of 2021 it's Jim [=McMahon=], Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the Shadow Cabinet of Keir Starmer.
153
154[[/folder]]
155
156[[folder: The Liberal Democrats]]
157
158[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/liberal_democrats_logo_2014_svg_5990.png]]
159'''Current leader:''' Sir Ed Davey (MP, Kingston & Surbiton).[[labelnote:Regional leaders]]\
160'''Scotland:''' Alex Cole-Hamilton (MSP, Edinburgh Western).\
161'''Wales:''' Jane Dodds (MS, Mid & East Wales).\
162'''England:''' Gerald Vernon-Jackson.[[note]]The Liberal Democrats use a federal party structure. The "English Liberal Democrats" currently don't do much beyond campaigning and local government, as their policy functions are nominally delegated to the overall UK party, but they exist partly in case the UK ever considers federalisation and England gains its own devolved autonomy. A bureaucratic example of DevelopersForesight.[[/note]][[/labelnote]]\
163'''House of Commons status:''' Fourth-largest party, in opposition.[[labelnote:Elsewhere]]\
164'''House of Lords:''' Fourth-largest grouping, in opposition.\
165'''Scottish Parliament:''' Fifth-largest party, in opposition.\
166'''Welsh Parliament:''' A single seat, in opposition.\
167'''Northern Ireland Assembly:''' Does not stand in Northern Ireland.\
168'''London Assembly:''' Smallest party.[[/labelnote]]\
169\
170Traditionally a centre-left, liberal (in the European sense) party, they were widely perceived as being slightly to the left of post-Blair Labour, and are sometimes treated as simply [[HilariousInHindsight a 'trendier' version of Labour]]. Formed from the merger of the old Liberal Party (itself a descendant of the original Whig Party), which saw its vote collapse after the rise of the Labour Party, and the Social Democratic Party, which was formed of former Labour [=MPs=] (and one Conservative) who'd become disenchanted with their parties' policy shifts. Notable for having a very favourable educational policy and for getting rid of their alcoholic leader (Charles Kennedy) in 2006, then the one after him (Menzies Campbell) within two years.\
171\
172They are traditionally most popular in Scotland, Cornwall, and Devon. During the early 21st century, they gained significant support in constituencies with a sizeable student population. Their party colour is gold, and their icon is the dove. The slang adjective is "Lib Dem" or "Whig". Suffer a lot from being the [[TakeAThirdOption Third Option]]; when they were treated equally to the main two parties during the 2010 election campaign, they even registered first place on the polls. Although these polls turned out to be overly optimistic for them, they still won an impressive 23% of the vote, but in seat terms they remained in distant third-party status -- due to their relatively even support nationwide[[note]]In fact, Liberal Democrat candidates were in second place more times than those of either the Conservatives or Labour.[[/note]] -- which explains why one of their key party policies is the introduction of proportional representation through the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote single transferable vote]].\
173\
174Since the Liberals' fall from popularity back in TheRoaringTwenties, their realistic aims have been to be {{kingmaker|Scenario}}s in a hung parliament, which they did in the 2010 election, deciding to ally with the Tories after talks with Labour failed.[[note]]Given the parliamentary mathematics, this was the best move: the alternatives were a centre-left alliance, which would've been too prone to nationalist interests, or a Conservative minority government, which might have quickly collapsed too.[[/note]] They would suffer from that decision, having gone from 57 [=MPs=] down to ''eight'' in 2015. Some of this was because people thought they had betrayed their voters by one or both of: getting into a coalition with the Tories[[note]]The backlash was so intense because there are a ''lot'' of constituencies where the voters either outright hate or deeply mistrust the Conservative Party but Labour commands insufficient support to win the seat. Many voters voted Liberal Democrat because at least it kept the Tories out, so when the Lib Dems joined the Tory-led coalition, voters felt personally betrayed by the Lib Dems' decision, essentially getting the Conservatives into power by the back door with their help.[[/note]] and splitting in half to vote to raise tuition fees despite promising not to.[[note]]For older readers, this is a spectacular case of the FleetingDemographicRule: not only had Labour broken election promises not to raise fees back in 1998 and 2004 (and indeed they introduced them to begin with), they did so with monster majorities, not coalition compromises, and they were also planning to raise tuition fees ''again'' until around 8:40 p.m. on 11 May 2010. The Tories had similar plans too, and indeed followed through with yet ''another'' rise in 2017.[[/note]] The rest was because many of their [=MPs=] depended on tactical voting to keep Labour/the Tories out in their seat, and the coalition meant this broke down on both sides.\
175\
176They have currently been superseded by the Scottish National Party as the third-largest party in Westminster (though maintaining a much larger presence than the SNP at local government level), bringing the traditional idea of the "Big Three" parties into serious contention, something their former leader Tim Farron ironically {{lampshade|Hanging}}d every so often. They recovered slightly in the 2017 election, increasing their tally from eight to twelve [=MPs=],[[note]]They won eight seats (seven of which they had lost in 2015) but lost four, leaving the party in an odd position where its representation in that parliament looked very different to the previous one.[[/note]] but time will tell as to whether they will be able to recover to the tens of [=MPs=] they used to return at each election. Farron resigned after the 2017 election, being replaced by party veteran Vince Cable, who returned to Parliament in that election and had previously been interim leader a decade prior.\
177\
178While still rather diminished, they made a big comeback in the local and European elections in 2019, taking second place in the latter after scooping up tens of thousands of centrist/centre-left voters from both the top two parties (but mainly Labour, even taking the European Parliament's Islington constituency -- which contains the UK Parliamentary constituency of none other than Jeremy Corbyn himself) who were frustrated and angry with their respective parties over Brexit policy. Labour, because most of the Labour membership (and many of the supporters in general) were very pro-Europe and sick of Corbyn's attempts to avoid openly declaring that he was in favour of a second referendum. The Conservatives, because the Conservatives have traditionally had the reputation as the sober, financially responsible party that doesn't rock the boat, but in an attempt to fend off the likes of the Brexit Party (essentially UKIP under another name), lurched towards the far right. Speaking of a second referendum, it is a policy that, as 'a People's Vote', the Lib Dems can genuinely claim to have championed from the start. Until mid-2018, it was dismissed as a mere fringe policy, but within six months it became extremely popular amongst Remainers and those who thought that Brexit was really, ''really'' not going to plan/that it was the only way to break Parliament's deadlock, with much of Labour demanding it become official party policy and some Conservative [=MPs=] saying off the record that it was probably the least bad option available.\
179\
180Cable resigned following the European elections, becoming a rare example of a party leader whose career did not end in failure (given he had just taken the party to some of its best electoral performances ''ever'' and he was able to go at a time of his own choosing). He was succeeded by Jo Swinson in the following leadership election. Swinson led her party for less than five months; after losing her parliamentary seat (East Dunbartonshire) to the SNP in the 2019 election ([[HistoryRepeats which had also happened in 2015]]), she was no longer eligible to continue as leader in accordance to party rules. Her seat was, ironically, the only seat the Lib Dems lost in the election (not counting the ones they picked up via defections since the previous election). Sir Ed Davey, who Swinson had defeated in the previous year's leadership contest, took over as interim leader and was subsequently elected as the party's permanent leader; similarly to Keir Starmer's election as Labour leader earlier in the year, this was seen as a mandate for the party to continue holding the political centre ground, as opposed to leadership rival Layla Moran's stated desire to move to the left.\
181\
182Following on from the 2019 local election wins, to general shock the Lib Dems won Chesham and Amersham in a by-election in June 2021. The shock came in because this was a traditional 'Blue Wall' seat that had voted Conservative since its creation in 1974 and had returned a majority of 16,000 for Conservative MP Dame Cheryl Gillan (whose death had precipitated the by-election). This time, it returned a majority of 8,000 for the Lib Dems after a 25% swing, and has sparked a lot of speculation about the Lib Dems hoovering up parts of the Blue Wall that had voted Remain, had an influx of Londoners, and felt ignored by the Tory focus on the Midlands and the North, supported by tactical Labour voting (the Labour presence at Chesham and Amersham was largely and carefully anonymous). While it's unclear if this will get anywhere, the post-election celebrations featured Davey smashing a wall of blue boxes with a small orange hammer. In December the Liberal Democrats followed up by winning North Shropshire, overturning a majority of 23,000 by nearly 6,000 in the seventh largest swing in by-election history after the incumbent MP Owen Paterson was forced to resign in a very public corruption scandal, and in June 2022 they made it a hat-trick by similarly overcoming a majority of 24,000[[note]]Although there have been larger swings, including in Chesham, this was the largest numerical majority ever overturned in a by-election[[/note]] in Tiverton and Honiton following the resignation of incumbent Neil Parish after he admitted to viewing pornography in the House of Commons.\
183\
184The Liberal Democrats' party anthem, "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fzk_Sc4bBY The Land]]", is of unknown authorship, but is widely considered the most rousing (former Labour leader Michael Foot, who was raised in a Liberal family, thought it was better than "The Red Flag"), especially seeing as it's sung to the tune of "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTjxqZWWmgc Marching Through Georgia]]":
185-->''The land, the land,''
186-->'''Twas God who made the land.''
187-->''The land, the land,''
188-->''The ground on which we stand.''
189-->''Why should we be beggars,''
190-->''With the ballot in our hand?''
191-->''God gave the land to the people!''
192
193[[/folder]]
194
195[[folder: The Regional & Smaller Parties]]
196
197!!![[AC:Scotland]]
198[[quoteright:195:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/195px-scottish_national_party_logo_svg_6952.png]]
199* The '''Scottish National Party''' (''Pàrtaidh Nàiseanta na h-Alba'' in Gaelic/''Scottis Naitional Pairtie'' in Scots)\
200'''Current leader:''' Humza Yousaf (First Minister of Scotland and MSP, Glasgow Pollok).[[labelnote:And...]]\
201'''Westminster group leader:''' Stephen Flynn (MP, Aberdeen South).[[/labelnote]]\
202'''House of Commons status:''' Third-largest party, in opposition.\
203'''House of Lords:''' No seats.\
204'''Scottish Parliament status:''' Largest party, current government.\
205\
206AKA the SNP. The party's raison d'être is Scottish independence. Formed in 1934 from the amalgamation of two small, young pro-independence parties: the centre-left National Party of Scotland and the centre-right Scottish Self-Governance Party. Eight years after the re-congregation of the Scottish Parliament, the SNP emerged as the largest party and formed a minority administration with confidence-and-supply support from the Green Party (and later the Conservatives). In 2011, it won an overall majority, something which the Scottish Parliament's mixed-member electoral system was specifically designed to make ''impossible''. The SNP-formed Scottish government held a referendum on independence on 18 September 2014, with Scotland choosing to remain in the United Kingdom. In the 2016 Holyrood elections, they retained dominance as Scotland's largest party, but lost their overall majority. The Conservatives leapfrogged Labour to become the second party of Scotland, reclaiming seats that had converted to Tony Blair's New Labour and leaving the historical positions of SNP and Labour now thoroughly flipped.\
207\
208Despite the similarity of their names, the SNP couldn't be more different to the BNP (whose founding it predates): the SNP is notably positive towards immigration and supports Scotland's membership in the EU (or the European Economic Area, depending on how they feel that day). The SNP officially supports the monarchy (though it has a sizeable republican faction opposed to it) and has policies that mostly resemble contemporary social-democratic parties found in mainland Europe. As a point of principle, the party does not appoint any members to the House of Lords, and officially backs its abolition and replacement with an elected chamber. They also strongly oppose [[UsefulNotes/UltimateDefenceOfTheRealm the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system]], which is based in Scotland, and have worked alongside other anti-nuclear weapons parties and the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) in calling for it to be scrapped.\
209\
210Years of growing public disaffection with the two main parties, catalysed by the 2014 referendum in which Labour and the Conservatives worked together closely in Better Together (the official campaigning body in favour of a No vote to independence), meant that in the 2015 general election the SNP scored a massive {{landslide|Election}}, winning 56 of the 59 Scottish seats and essentially wiping out Labour's power in Scotland. Given the simultaneous collapse of the Liberal Democrats, they are now the third largest party in the Commons — a drastic shift in the power balance, and almost unheard of for a party that only contests elections in one part of the UK.[[note]]It was still a less extreme case than what happened in UsefulNotes/{{Canad|ianPolitics}}a after that country's 1993 national election, wherein the Bloc Québécois, which analogously campaigns in favour of independence for that country's Quebec province, became '''Official Opposition'''. Otherwise the last time a similar event happened in the UK was in the 1880s–1910s when the Irish Parliamentary Party (which only fielded candidates in Ireland) was the third largest party in Westminster, with 85 [=MPs=] at its peak.[[/note]]\
211\
212Following the UK's referendum on membership in the EU (the "Brexit" referendum) — in which the UK as a whole narrowly voted 52–48 in favour of leaving the EU, but Scotland voted 62–38 in favour of staying — the SNP released a three-tiered plan in response, calling for: a "soft" Brexit that would retain single-market membership;[[note]]It was ruled out by the UK government, although in light of the 2017 election result this may change.[[/note]] a tailored Brexit deal taking Scotland's specific circumstances — and vote — into account;[[note]]It was never explicitly ruled out, but considered highly unlikely given Prime Minister Theresa May's insistence on a Brexit deal "for the whole UK."[[/note]] or, if the first options fail, a second referendum on Scottish independence (shunted firmly out of certainty following the SNP's 2017 losses).[[note]]Their reasoning on this is that EU membership was considered a major issue in the 2014 referendum, with the No campaign claiming that independence would place it at risk, and only by staying in the UK could Scotland's membership in the EU be ensured.[[/note]]\
213\
214The manifesto on which the SNP were elected in the 2016 elections explicitly said that there should be the opportunity to hold a second independence referendum if there was a "material change" in circumstances since the last one, with "Leaving the EU against Scotland's will" being cited as the prime example. Therefore, the SNP argue that they have a democratic mandate to call a second referendum, a position wherein the Scottish Green Party has supported them, meaning that there is a majority in the Scottish Parliament for it should a vote occur, although national polling does not currently indicate much support among the population for another referendum.\
215\
216In the 2017 election, the SNP found their support slashed — although they still won 35 of the 59 seats in Scotland, they only managed to poll about 40% of the vote, with the remaining 60% split among parties who explicitly vowed to oppose another independence referendum.[[note]]Virtually all the seats they did hold turned into marginals, despite previously having SNP majorities in excess of 10,000 — North East Fife was held by the SNP's Stephen Gethins by just ''two'' votes.[[/note]] In addition, their two most notable [=MPs=], former First Minister Alex Salmond and Westminster group leader Angus Robertson, were two of the twelve who lost their seats to Conservative candidates. This resulted in some loss to their momentum, but they made a dozen net gains (including Lib Dem leader Jo Swinson's seat) in the 2019 election, thus putting the issue of a second independence referendum back onto the agenda. A very similar result to the 2016 Holyrood elections was achieved in 2021, bringing the issue even more into the fore. However, with the Conservatives having an 80-seat majority at Westminster, any movement on this may prove difficult to achieve.\
217\
218The anthem of the Scottish National Party is "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5kE3of1Lzo Scots Wha Hae]]", by Creator/RobertBurns, to the traditional Scottish tune "Hey Tuttie Tatie":
219-->''Wha, for Scotland's king and law,''
220-->''Freedom's sword will strongly draw,''
221-->''Freeman stand, or Freeman fa,''
222-->''Let him on wi me.''
223
224* The '''Scottish Socialist Party''' (SSP)\
225'''Current leader:''' Collective Leadership\
226'''House of Commons status:''' No seats.\
227'''Scottish Parliament status:''' No seats.\
228\
229Very left-wing Scottish party. Campaigned for independence with the SNP, and at one point had six [=MSPs=] in the Scottish Parliament. Currently has no representation at any level. The SSP took part in an electoral coalition for the 2016 elections called RISE -- Scotland's Left Alliance[[note]]"RISE" is an acronym for Respect, Independence, Socialism, and Environmentalism.[[/note]] which gained little traction, accruing only 0.5% of the vote and no seats in Holyrood.
230
231* The '''Alba Party'''\
232'''Current leader:''' Alex Salmond (No current seat).[[labelnote:And...]]\
233'''Westminster group leader:''' Neale Hanvey (MP, Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath).[[/labelnote]]\
234'''House of Commons status:''' Second-smallest party, in opposition.\
235'''Scottish Parliament status:''' No seats.\
236\
237[[WeAreStrugglingTogether Another]] pro-independence party in Scotland, set up by former Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond after his rather public falling-out with the SNP over an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct (of which Salmond was cleared). Partly designed to try and maximise a pro-independence vote in the Scottish Parliament elections by gaming Scotland's combined first-past-the-post and proportional representation system. Gained two [=MPs=] upon its formation, both defectors from the SNP; however, it failed to get any noticeable percentage of votes in the Scottish Parliament election, with the non-SNP pro-independence voters primarily opting for the Green Party instead.
238
239!!![[AC:Wales]]
240[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-plaid_cymru_logo_new_7589.png]]
241* '''Plaid Cymru'''\
242'''Current leader:''' Adam Price (MS, Carmarthen East and Dinefwr).[[labelnote:And...]]\
243'''Westminster group leader:''' Liz Saville Roberts (MP, Dwyfor Meirionnydd).[[/labelnote]]\
244'''House of Commons status:''' Third-smallest party, in opposition.\
245'''House of Lords:''' A single seat, in opposition.\
246'''Welsh Parliament status:''' Third-largest party, co-operative agreement with government.\
247\
248"The Party of Wales" in English, a Welsh nationalist and [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen republican]] party who campaign for full Welsh independence and an expansion of the Welsh language, among other things. Like the SNP, they're a centre-left party, but not so keen on independence as a short-term aim. Although the Welsh are fiercely independent in ''cultural'' matters, ''political'' independence is not as popular (though post-Brexit, that support is steadily rising), seeing as England and Wales have been joined at the hip since the thirteenth century. They only field candidates in Wales, unsurprisingly. Since the formation of the National Assembly for Wales, Welsh Labour has governed in every electoral term. However, it has never had a strong majority, either only just reaching the majority (30 seats) or being the largest party in a minority or coalition government. As a result, Welsh Labour have relied heavily on Plaid Cymru for most of the Assembly's existence for either formal coalition partnership or less formal 'agreements' to get policies through the Senedd. (For those not versed in the Welsh language, the party's name is pronounced "Plide Cumree" and the seat of power is pronounced "SEN-eth."[[note]]The 'dd' is pronounced like the 'th' in 'then'.[[/note]] And you thought that ''English'' spelling was weird.)
249
250!!![[AC:England]]
251* '''Mebyon Kernow''' (''Sons of Cornwall'')\
252'''Current leader:''' Dick Cole (Local Councillor, Cornwall).\
253'''House of Commons status:''' No seats.\
254\
255Left-of-centre party agitating for Cornish autonomy, in the style of Celtic region devolution. Nothing more than a handful of members of Cornwall County Council. Regarded by non-Cornish people as not much more than a joke.[[note]]Although Cornwall isn't exactly a political heavyweight, it does have a distinct cultural identity. The Cornish language, which is distantly related to Welsh and Breton, is one of the very few languages to have died out ''and been revived''; at the beginning of the 20th century nobody spoke it at all, but by 2008 there were an estimated 2000 people who speak it fluently. In 2009, UNESCO raised the status of the language from "Extinct" to "Critically Endangered".[[/note]]
256
257[[quoteright:190:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/190px-english_democrats_logo_4339.png]]
258* '''English Democrats'''\
259'''Current leader:''' Robin Tillbrook (no current seat).\
260\
261English nationalist party in the vein of the SNP and Plaid Cymru. Generally close in ideology to the Conservatives, with most of their elected party members former Tories, but with support for a devolved legislature and an elected Lords. No representation beyond a single councillor.
262
263!!![[AC:Northern Ireland]]
264With the exception of the Conservatives and UKIP (neither of whom wins any seats anyway), the main UK parties do not contest seats in Northern Ireland, and do not stand for elections to the Northern Irish Assembly.[[note]]Nor can they, in many cases, because they're not registered to do so anyway, and the UK-wide party doesn't want to try it, resulting in the curious situation in the 2016 Assembly election of Labour [=wannabe-MLAs=] standing under the banner of the "NI Labour Representation Committee". It hearkened back, intentionally or not, to the Labour Party's origin as the "Labour Representation Committee," but didn't work.[[/note]] Instead, a series of regional parties holds sway here.\
265
266[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-sinn_fin_logo_8364.png]]
267* '''Sinn Féin''' (SF; pronounced "shin fane", Irish for "we ourselves")\
268'''Current leader:''' Mary Lou [=McDonald=] (TD, Dublin Central).[[note]]A legislator in the Republic of Ireland. See our article on the UsefulNotes/IrishPoliticalSystem.[[/note]] [[labelnote:And...]]\
269'''Northern Ireland leader:''' Michelle O'Neill (First Minister of Northern Ireland and MLA, Mid Ulster).[[/labelnote]]\
270'''House of Commons status:''' Sixth-largest party, but abstains from the Commons.\
271'''House of Lords:''' No seats.\
272'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' Largest party.\
273\
274The largest party in Northern Ireland and the main nationalist (favouring Irish unification) party in the NI Assembly. While they've regularly had members elected to the House of Commons, they don't actually take their seats as they see the UK's claim to NI as illegitimate.[[note]]Also, if they did take their seats, they'd have to swear an oath of loyalty to the Crown.[[/note]] The cheeky buggers still [[http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/sinn-fein-under-fire-over-westminster-expense-claims-16175256.html claim the Crown's expenses, however]]. During UsefulNotes/TheTroubles, they were (accurately) perceived as the political wing of the Provisional IRA — when the then-leader Martin [=McGuinness=] said in negotiations, "We'll have to consult the [IRA] army council on this", the then-Foreign Minister (later Taoiseach) of Ireland, Brian Cowen, replied, "Yeah, well, there's a mirror in the toilet if you want to go in there and talk to them" — but like the DUP they've generally managed to distance themselves from their more radical past.\
275\
276One of the few SugarWiki/{{Heartwarming Moment}}s in Northern Irish history was the [[OddFriendship solid partnership and genuine friendship]] that developed between Paisley and [=McGuinness=], during their term as (respectively) First Minister and Deputy First Minister, before Paisley's death in 2014. They were so frequently photographed laughing together that they got nicknamed the "Chuckle Brothers". Imagine a hardline, right-wing Israeli MP developing a friendly working partnership with a leader of Hamas, and you'll get a sense of how unlikely this was.
277
278[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-duporguklogocol_8603.png]]
279* '''Democratic Unionist Party''' (DUP)\
280'''Current leader:''' Sir Jeffrey Donaldson (MP, Lagan Valley).[[labelnote:And...]]\
281'''Northern Ireland Assembly leader:''' Emma Little-Pengelly (Deputy First Minister and MLA, Lagan Valley).[[/labelnote]]\
282'''House of Commons status:''' Fifth-largest party, in opposition.\
283'''House of Lords:''' Fourth-smallest grouping, in opposition.\
284'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' Second-largest party.\
285\
286Presently the largest party in UsefulNotes/NorthernIreland to favour the continued union with Britain, and the second largest NI party overall. While their economic policies are broadly centre-left due to the influence of the party's working-class support, they're strongly right-wing virtually everywhere else, mostly as a result of the leadership of Reverend Ian Paisley, the founder of the fundamentalist Free Presbyterian Church. Have also had some sketchy relationships in the past with loyalist paramilitaries.\
287\
288Although they're most famous for being ''stringently'' reactionary, the party has tried to mellow out a bit since Paisley (and then his successor, Peter Robinson) became First Minister of Northern Ireland in 2005. They strongly oppose same-sex marriage, strictly refuse to extend the UK's abortion rights to Northern Ireland, want creationism taught in science classes, and are ambivalent about the existence of climate change and dinosaurs. Got into a bit of trouble for using cross-community procedural measures (designed to stop unionists or nationalists disenfranchising the other) to block the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland, plus their stringent opposition to allowing abortion in Northern Ireland, among other similar matters, before Westminster finally bullied them into going along with both.\
289\
290Also responsible for developing a rather questionable renewable heating scheme in Northern Ireland. The scheme was set up in such a cocked-up way that businesses paying into it managed to get more money out just for heating empty buildings. There have also been allegations that family members and associates of DUP members were set to benefit from this scheme and may even have been complicit in its development. This is set to cost the Northern Ireland budget hundreds of millions of pounds over two decades, and the DUP's unwillingness to admit any responsibility or wrongdoing, or even show the slightest bit of humility, led to Sinn Féin collapsing the coalition government in Stormont in early 2017. The government was finally restored just in time for the COVID-19 pandemic to hit, before promptly being collapsed ''again'' following the 2022 elections -- this time by the DUP trying to subvert an anti-Brexit majority in the Assembly.\
291\
292Found themselves in a KingmakerScenario following the 2017 election, as the support of their ten [=MPs=] gave the Conservatives enough votes to pass legislation as a minority government. Given the unwillingness of ''any'' other party in the Commons to prop up the Conservatives, this was their only option. How this would influence the UK government's impartiality in negotiations over Northern Ireland, however, was a potentially thorny issue. Subsequently were returned to minor-party status with the 2019 election when the Conservatives won an overall majority, no longer relying on DUP support to pass legislation.\
293
294* '''Social Democratic and Labour Party''' (SDLP; Irish language: ''Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre'')\
295'''Current leader:''' Colum Eastwood (MP, Foyle).[[labelnote:And...]]\
296'''Northern Ireland Assembly leader:''' Matthew O'Toole (MLA, Belfast South).[[/labelnote]]\
297'''House of Commons status:''' Second-smallest party.\
298'''House of Lords:''' No seats.\
299'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' Fifth-largest party.\
300\
301Moderate Northern Irish nationalist party, it was formed from the dying remnants of the old Nationalist Party in the original devolved Northern Ireland Parliament. Originally the majority nationalist party in the later Northern Ireland Assembly, before Sinn Féin took over this role in the mid-2000s. Historically linked to both the British and Irish Labour Parties, its members (when it has any) take the Labour whip in Westminster. Former party leader John Hume received a Nobel Peace Prize (along with then-UUP leader David Trimble) for his key role in helping negotiate the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Lost all three of its Westminster seats to Sinn Féin in the 2017 election but regained two of them in 2019.
302
303[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-uuplogo_5781.jpg]]
304* '''Ulster Unionist Party''' (UUP)\
305'''Current leader:''' Doug Beattie (MLA, Upper Bann).\
306'''House of Commons status:''' No seats.\
307'''House of Lords:''' Second-smallest grouping.\
308'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' Fourth-largest party.\
309\
310Moderate Northern Irish unionist party, they were the majority in the original devolved Northern Ireland Parliament for all 51 years of the its existence (1921–72), with policies broadly like the Conservative Party in the mainland UK. Used to be the standard 'majority unionist' party in the later Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998, until supplanted as such by the DUP in the mid-2000s. Have been physically linked to the Conservative Party at various points in their history but have wavered between emphasising and distancing that link depending on the national politics of the time. Former party leader David Trimble received a Nobel Peace Prize (along with then-SDLP leader John Hume) for his key role in helping negotiate the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. Lost their only two Westminster seats to the DUP in the 2017 election and failed to reclaim any in 2019.
311
312* '''Alliance Party''' (APNI)\
313'''Current leader:''' Naomi Long (MLA, Belfast East).\
314'''House of Commons status:''' A single MP.\
315'''House of Lords:''' No seats.\
316'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' Third-largest party.\
317\
318A non-sectarian party specifically set up to provide a compromise between the traditional camps of unionism and nationalism. Historically linked to the Liberal Democrats, and when in Westminster takes their whip on any non-Northern Ireland issues.
319
320* '''People Before Profit Alliance''' (PBPA)\
321'''Current leader:''' Collective Leadership.\
322'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' A single MLA.\
323\
324A non-sectarian socialist party. Also contests elections in the Republic of Ireland with the Anti-Austerity Alliance.
325
326* '''Traditional Unionist Voice''' (TUV)\
327'''Current leader:''' Jim Allister (MLA, North Antrim).\
328'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' A single MLA.\
329\
330Even more right-wing unionist party than the DUP. Supports '''very''' socially conservative policies, and repeatedly advocates for the ceasing of the Irish language (used occasionally by Sinn Féin [=MLAs=]) in the Northern Ireland Assembly, and removal of the Northern Irish Assembly itself in favour of direct rule from Westminster. In 2015 a TUV local councillor in Larne opposed the erecting of a plaque in memory of eight women convicted of witchcraft in the 18th century, on the grounds, he said, that the women ''might have been actual witches''.
331
332* '''Progressive Unionist Party''' (PUP)\
333'''Current leader:''' Billy Hutchinson (Local Councillor, Belfast).\
334'''Northern Ireland Assembly status:''' No seats.\
335\
336Left-wing NI unionist party, with "close ties" (in the vein of Sinn Féin) to loyalist (not in the vein of Sinn Féin) paramilitaries. Occasionally gains representation in the Assembly. Currently the only left-wing unionist party contesting elections in Northern Ireland, but now only has representation at local council level.
337
338!!! [[AC:Smaller UK-wide Parties]]
339[[quoteright:143:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/green_party_logo_2000px_7745.png]]
340* The '''Green Party'''\
341'''England & Wales co-leaders:''' Carla Denyer (Local Councillor, Bristol) & Adrian Ramsey (no current seat).\
342'''Scotland co-conveners:''' Patrick Harvie (MSP, Glasgow) & Lorna Slater (MSP, Lothian).\
343'''Northern Ireland leader:''' Malachai O'Hara (Local Councillor, Belfast).\
344'''House of Commons status:''' Joint-smallest party, in opposition.[[labelnote:Elsewhere]]\
345'''House of Lords:''' Second-smallest grouping, in opposition.\
346'''Scottish Parliament:''' Fourth-largest party, coalition government.\
347'''Welsh Parliament:''' No seats.\
348'''Northern Ireland Assembly:''' No seats.\
349'''London Assembly:''' Third-largest party.[[/labelnote]]\
350\
351Technically three separate parties -- one each in England and Wales, in Scotland, and in Northern Ireland -- but with broadly similar policies throughout, and usually considered nationally as one party in the media. Originally an environmental [[SingleIssueWonk single-issue movement]], they have branched out, with mixed success, into other areas of policy in which they tend to take a standard British-left-wing viewpoint. The Scottish Greens in particular, being the joint-fourth largest party in the Scottish Parliament, tend to develop a very fleshed-out policy programme.\
352\
353The Greens used to differ from other left-wing parties with regard to science, where they embraced many 'alternative' (and scientifically disproved) ideas such as homeopathy, partially as a result of their manifesto being completely democratic, even to people not versed in either science or politics. Nowadays, their only 'anti-science' policies are opposition to nuclear power and scepticism of GM crops -- though many of their members still favour 'alternative' medicines. Their position on Europe is to take a 'reformist Eurosceptic' view: they would prefer to stay in the EU but want to see it massively reformed. The Scottish Greens are pro-independence (and have the backing of Music/FranzFerdinand), while the Northern Irish Greens purposely take no position on UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion. The English and Welsh Greens won the first Green seat at Westminster in 2010, then-leader Caroline Lucas beating Labour's Nancy Platts to win the seat of Brighton Pavilion in East Sussex. Lucas has represented the constituency since, but she has been the only Green MP despite the party getting well over one million votes nationally in 2015 and in the high hundreds of thousands in both 2017 and 2019. The Greens' colour, [[SarcasmMode surprisingly]], is green, and the Anglo-Welsh party's icon is a sunflower. The Scottish, Anglo-Welsh, and Irish branches of the Greens use their own variations on the theme.
354
355[[quoteright:147:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/logo2_6194.png]]
356* The '''UK Independence Party''' (UKIP)\
357'''Current leader:''' Neil Hamilton (no current seat).\
358'''House of Commons status:''' No seats.[[labelnote:Elsewhere]]\
359'''House of Lords:''' No seats.\
360'''Scottish Parliament:''' No seats.\
361'''Welsh Parliament:''' No seats.\
362'''Northern Ireland Assembly:''' No seats.\
363'''London Assembly:''' No seats.[[/labelnote]]\
364\
365A party which has attained victories primarily in Britain's elections for members of the European Parliament, but ironically want to change that situation by pulling the UK out of the EU altogether. Although founded as a "wide-spectrum" [[SingleIssueWonk single-issue party]] united by opposition to British membership of the European Union, they ended up metamorphosing into a populist, nationalist, anti-immigration grouping of disgruntled Thatcherite Conservatives disillusioned with their "home" party, and their general outlook is very similar to that of the right "[[Magazine/PrivateEye Sir Bufton Tufton]]" wing of the Conservative Party that was dominant in TheEighties but unofficially marginalised post-2005. In later years, however, they made a play for disgruntled Lib Dem and Labour voters, and in the 2015 election arguably emerged as the main opposition party in traditionally Labour areas, making second place in many safe Labour seats. The party's first European parliamentarians tended to make embarrassing jingoistic far-right gaffes, although a succession of leaders later made effective efforts to improve the party's image. Their party colour is purple, and their icon is a pound symbol (£) -- representing their opposition to the Euro -- with the party initials "UKIP" forming the bar across the middle. Following the defection of Douglas Carswell from the Conservatives in 2014 and his subsequent win for their party in the Clacton by-election, they gained their first MP; Mark Reckless also defected shortly afterwards, won his seat of Rochester & Strood in the by-election, but lost it in the subsequent general election. The party was the third largest in vote share in the 2015 general election (with the best part of four million votes), but won only one seat, Douglas Carswell's. In the 2016 devolved elections, they won seven seats in the Welsh Assembly, mostly from the regional vote which is based on proportional representation. Most of their votes come from disgruntled Conservative, Labour, and Lib Dem voters in regions that combine high levels of poverty, unemployment, and immigration. Several of these new UKIP [=AMs=] are former Tories, including the aforementioned Mark Reckless, though one AM has since resigned the whip due to an argument over who gets to be in charge, and indeed Mr Reckless has now ''returned'' to the Conservatives.\
366\
367With the UK voting in a 2016 referendum to leave the European Union, thereby removing the party's entire reason for existence, they found themselves in the process of [[AndThenWhat wondering what on earth to do now]]. While many in the press talked up their chances of replacing Labour as the main opposition party (by seizing their working-class support in northern England, à la how the SNP obliterated Labour north of the border at the previous election), any chance of this was derailed by a disastrous few months in which long-standing leader Nigel Farage retired, only for his favoured successor to be unable to stand to replace him due to not filing the correct paperwork in time (and subsequently resigning from the party following a physical altercation with another MEP). Farage's eventual successor, Diane James, resigned from the leadership after just a few weeks, leaving Farage back in charge until ''another'' leadership election installed Paul Nuttall as leader. While Nuttall's appointment was widely praised by the press and claimed by some to be what the party needed to displace Labour at last, his attempt at getting into Parliament via a by-election in February 2017 (at Stoke-on-Trent Central) ended in failure after a campaign where he was accused of lying about being a survivor of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster Hillsborough disaster]] and committing electoral fraud, putting the party back to square one.\
368After numerous reports of party infighting, their only MP, Douglas Carswell, eventually decided in 2017 that he'd had enough, and left the party to sit as an independent. This means UKIP now no longer had any representation in Westminster. Worse was to follow at the 2017 local elections, in which ''every UKIP councillor'' standing for re-election was defeated, and the party only managed to gain a single council seat from the other parties. In the June 2017 general election, as noted, UKIP's vote utterly collapsed nationwide, with UKIP voters returning to both the Conservatives and Labour in relatively even numbers. As such, they now have no Westminster representation, and were again forced to search for a new leader following Paul Nuttall's resignation the day after the election (he came a distant third in Boston and Skegness, the constituency estimated to have the highest proportional Leave vote of the entire country, going almost three to one for Leave in the referendum). This leadership election was won by Farage supporter Henry Bolton, seeing off a challenge from far-right extremist Anne-Marie Waters, who wanted to turn the party into the political arm of her anti-Islam organisation. Four months into Bolton's leadership, the party dissolved into outright civil war sparked off by a controversy over Bolton leaving his wife for a model who turned out to be a racist, with the party's ruling body passing a vote of no confidence in Bolton only for him to refuse to resign, and [=MEPs=] and councillors quitting the party ''en masse''. The party finally managed to get rid of Bolton after he lost a confidence vote amongst the wider membership, leaving the party facing its fourth leadership election in less than eighteen months, which eventually resulted in interim leader Gerard Batten being elected unopposed as permanent leader (with it being widely theorized that other potential candidates held off on contesting the leadership on the grounds that the party simply couldn't afford another leadership contest on top of the six-figure payout they faced having to make due to a libel suit). Batten's leadership initially saw an improvement in the party's polling ratings, as Theresa May's government increasingly came under fire for its indecisive handling of Brexit. However, everything went horribly wrong near the end of 2018, as Batten recruited several prominent members of the alt-right, along with former BNP and English Defence League activist Tommy Robinson, the latter of which in particular saw many prominent members, including Nigel Farage, quit the party in disgust to [[StartMyOwn form the Brexit Party]].\
369\
370With Farage's new party taking most of their former vote, the 2019 European Parliament elections saw UKIP wiped out completely (it was only defending three seats as all their other [=MEPs=] had left the party), sparking off the fifth leadership election in less than four years due to Batten losing his own seat -- with Batten's replacement, Richard Braine, resigning from the party after just two months as leader following accusations of stealing party data. He was eventually replaced by Freddy Vachha in 2020 (after a period of time with Patricia Mountain as interim leader), only for Vacha to be suspended and be replaced by Neil Hamilton three months into his leadership; Vachha maintains that he is still UKIP's leader. Many current and former members now acknowledge that UKIP is effectively dead as a serious electoral force, something only emphasized when the party finished ''behind the Monster Raving Loonies'' at the Brecon and Radnorshire by-election in August 2019, and then gained only a paltry 22,000 votes nationwide at the general election later that year.
371
372* '''Change UK: The Independent Group'''\
373'''[--(No current representation)--]'''\
374'''Final leader:''' Anna Soubry (No seat).\
375[[UsefulNotes/BritishNewspapers Not a newspaper conglomerate.]]\
376\
377A group of independent [=MPs=] who were a ''little'' different from actual Independents (see below). The Independent Group formed in 2019 when a group of [=MPs=] resigned from both the Labour and Conservative parties over dissatisfaction with their current leadership and party policies. By resigning their party's whip, they automatically become Independent [=MPs=], but have chosen to form themselves into a like-minded aligned group... hence, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin "Independent Group"]].\
378\
379This move attracted both support and criticism from all sides of the Commons.\
380\
381Their policy programme took time to be fleshed out, with their primary unifying aspect being their opposition to Brexit and desire for a second referendum on the UK's EU membership. While the Group claimed they weren't a political party (unlike the SDP breakaway of the 1980s), the coincidentally quick appearance of a corporate back structure and branded logos indicated that things were swiftly going to move in that direction. And indeed, they formed into an actual party (re-branded as "Change UK") in time for the 2019 European Parliament elections.\
382\
383The results of the 2019 EU elections did not bode well for their future, and shortly afterwards the group split, with six of its eleven [=MPs=] choosing to sit as actual independents instead. Several of them since found their way over to the Liberal Democrats (who unequivocally managed to become the strongest pro-Remain party at the EU elections). Subsequently, at the 2019 general election, the party lost all three of their seats in the Commons,[[note]]All three Change UK [=MPs=] lost their seats to candidates of the major party they had formerly represented. This meant Mike Gapes and Chris Leslie lost Ilford South and Nottingham East, respectively, to Labour candidates and Anna Soubry lost Broxtowe to a Conservative.[[/note]] and finally wound itself up in December 2019 after the election.
384
385* '''Reform UK''' (formerly the '''Brexit Party''')\
386'''Current leader:''' Richard Tice (no current seat).\
387'''House of Commons status:''' No seats.[[labelnote:Elsewhere]]\
388'''House of Lords:''' No seats.\
389'''Scottish Parliament:''' No seats.\
390'''Welsh Parliament:''' No seats.\
391'''Northern Ireland Assembly:''' No seats.\
392'''London Assembly:''' No seats.[[/labelnote]]\
393\
394[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin A party that wants Brexit.]]\
395[[SingleIssueWonk A single-issue party]] formed by Nigel Farage in 2019 to contest the European Parliament elections, taking over where UKIP left off.\
396\
397Other than wanting a 'clean' Brexit, no one really knows what they're about, as the party long refused to produce a manifesto or otherwise answer any policy questions whatsoever where the answers aren't 'Get out of Europe.'\
398\
399[[BrokenBase Some people like this, some people don't.]]\
400\
401In the 2019 EU Parliament elections, they basically swapped places with UKIP and picked up a few extra [=MEPs=] -- not really changing things much compared to the previous elections in 2014. It remains to be seen whether they'll have any kind of impact in other elections; their first test domestically came in the Peterborough by-election shortly after the EU election, where they did have an impact, but perhaps not in the way that had been expected -- the Tories had been predicted to win the seat in a landslide after the previous Labour MP was kicked out of office for obstruction of justice, but instead found their vote being split by the Brexit Party, allowing Labour to retain the seat narrowly.\
402\
403In the 2019 general election, the Brexit Party tried to avoid this by agreeing to an informal electoral pact with the Conservatives, apparently on the orders of Donald Trump, whereby the Brexit Party didn't stand in any constituencies that the Conservatives won in 2017. (Farage went ahead with this even after Boris Johnson declined his offer to make it official.) This appears to have paid off, with the Conservatives retaining most of their seats from 2017 and the Brexit Party draining votes from Labour in traditional Labour heartlands, allowing Conservative candidates to take the seat. While Farage announced his intention to rebrand the party as the "Reform Party" in order to help it succeed where UKIP failed in displacing the Labour Party as the main opposition, little has been heard from them since the general election, and questions remain as to the likely success of any rebrand considering they're even more of an explicit one-issue party than UKIP were. Currently the Reform Party is acting as an anti-Lockdown/anti-'woke' party, though with Farage having announced his (supposedly) final retirement from politics in early 2021, they still appear to be struggling for future direction.
404
405[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/200px-british_national_party_svg_8500.png]]
406* The '''British National Party''' (BNP, colloquially known as the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName British Nazi Party]])\
407'''Current leader:''' Adam Walker (no current seat).\
408'''House of Commons status:''' No seats.\
409\
410Proof that the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarII Second World War]] didn't really teach some British people anything, they are an ultra-populist far-right party (so far-right they believe the Conservatives to be Marxist) and believe in withdrawal from the European Union, isolationism, strongly authoritarian anti-crime measures, "better rights" for "native" (i.e., white) Britons, and "voluntary repatriation" of what they regard as "non-native" Britons (i.e. deporting anyone who isn't white).[[note]]Nick Griffin indeed said that black Britons and Asian Britons "do not exist".[[/note]] They are usually elected in areas with high levels of racial tension. They are derided by other far-right groups such as the National Front for trying to make themselves appear respectable. They have been playing up their anti-immigration policies in order to gain popular support, but remain very niche and have no [=MPs=], although they had several councillors and had a few [=MEPs=] in the European Parliament from 2009 to 2014. Their colours are red, white, and blue, and the party's logo is a heart with a Union Jack pattern beneath.\
411\
412The appellation "far-right", by the way, applies strictly to their social, foreign, and law and order policies; their economic policy is somewhat standard and, as long as you're white, you'd probably get the same financial assistance from the state as you would under Labour. One of the only political parties to be banned from most university campuses, due to their policies. They are almost universally hated and are considered acceptable targets, as demonstrated when their leader Nick Griffin went on ''Question Time''. For everyone except him, {{Hilarity Ensue|s}}d.
413** Mostly appears in FictionalCounterpart form.
414** Had its membership list leaked by a disgruntled party worker, and, rather hilariously, declared its intention to use the Human Rights Act, which incorporates the 1950 European Convention on Human Rights into UK law and that ''[[HypocriticalHumor it actively campaigned to have repealed]]'', against the leaker. Sandi Toksvig on ''The News Quiz'' said: "Sometimes you don't have to write jokes." The worker was ultimately fined, but only a pittance, due to the BNP's aggressive case.
415** Their campaign literature tends to suffer from factual errors; for instance, one campaign leaflet showed pictures of ordinary Britons and images from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII such as a Spitfire. However, it turned out that most of the 'ordinary Britons' were stock photographs of non-British models, and the Spitfire belonged to 303 (Polish) Squadron-- a delicious {{irony}} given that one of the BNP's particular bugbears is immigration from Poland and other Eastern European countries. Likewise, as any far-right nationalist party would, they have a love of using England's patron saint, St George: a Palestinian who would've almost certainly have been told to go home under their policies.
416** Since the threat of racial discrimination lawsuits looked to cripple the party financially, they are now required to allow the entry of people of ethnic minorities -- and have, in fact, [[TokenMinority one non-white member]],[[note]]A South Asian Sikh named [[http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/bnp-signs-its-first-nonwhite-member-1824108.html Rajinder Singh]] who joined the BNP due to its anti-Muslim policies.[[/note]] as of 2010.
417** During the 2015 election, it put up eight candidates and got 1,667 votes nationwide. In January 2016, the Electoral Commission deregistered the British National Party after it had failed to pay its annual registration fee of £25. The party was subsequently reregistered, and it still exists, but it has no representation on any level and only contested 10 seats at the 2017 election.[[note]]Their candidates won 4,642 votes between them, in case you were curious.[[/note]]
418** They were to the 2000s decade as the National Front were to TheSeventies and the British Union of Fascists were to TheThirties. In other words, they were mostly a one-decade wonder as far as popularity and media attention went.
419
420* The '''National Front'''\
421The main ultra-nationalist party in the 1970s and TheEighties and a predecessor of the BNP, it still fields a handful of candidates, although most of its members have moved to the BNP. The main difference between the NF and the BNP is that the BNP at least pretends not to be racist. In a lot of more politically aware fiction set in the Thatcher years (''Film/ThisIsEngland'' for example), the NF (or a FictionalCounterpart) often loom on the horizon.
422
423[[quoteright:220:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-respect__the_unity_coalition_logo_2309.jpg]]
424* '''RESPECT: The Unity Coalition'''\
425A hodgepodge of anti-Iraq War socialists and ultraconservative Muslims. "RESPECT" was [[FunWithAcronyms an acronym]] for "[[DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment Respect]], Equality, Socialism, Peace, Environmentalism, Community, and Trade Unionism." Notable for electing famous cat imitator and useful idiot George Galloway in 2005 after he moved from a safe Labour seat in Glasgow to the ''very'' Muslim Bethnal Green and Bow following his expulsion from the Labour Party for bringing the party into disrepute on charges including inciting Arabs to fight British troops. Galloway moved a little south to Poplar to contest the 2010 election and crashed and burned, leaving RESPECT with a handful of council seats in Muslim-heavy areas in Birmingham and London. However, in April 2012, Galloway was elected MP for Bradford West in a by-election. He lost the seat at the subsequent general election, winning 8,557 of the 9,989 votes the party's four candidates won between them. The party deregistered "voluntarily" in August 2016.
426
427[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/logo_of_the_communist_party_of_britain_9696.png]]
428* There are also several communist and socialist parties, mainly notable for their sheer number; most famously the '''Socialist Worker's Party''', but also including '''[[WeAreStrugglingTogether the Communist Party of Great Britain, the Communist Party of Britain, the Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist), and the Revolutionary Communist Party of Great Britain (Marxist-Leninist)]]'''. Totally insignificant from a practical point of view, having membership in the hundreds rather than thousands. Came in for a ''lot'' of ribbing in ''Film/MontyPythonsLifeOfBrian'', where the Judean separatist movements and their in-fighting[[note]]The Judean People's Front, the Judean Popular People's Front, the People's Front for Judea, and the Judean Popular People's Front (the last is a single old man, and the rest are all splitters).[[/note]] were a parody of this. The CPGB actually won two seats back in 1945 before news of [[UsefulNotes/JosefStalin Stalin's]] [[ThePurge purges]] made communism unpopular, and they lost them both at the 1950 election and proceeded to collapse into irrelevance thanks to their following the Moscow party line (their support for the 1956 invasion of Hungary revolted nearly all more rational leftists and earned them the pejorative nickname "tankies") and eventually disbanded in 1991. Since 2010, many of these far-left groups have stood for election under the banner of TUSC (the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition). This is more a flag of convenience than a genuine party, though.\
429\
430Notably, these parties had -- and to a degree still have -- an ''incredibly'' HighTurnoverRate of activists and members, especially the Moscow-backed CPGB. There are two reasons for this: first, they attracted young, intelligent, rebellious, free-thinking radicals... who were then expected to become rigidly obedient drones the moment they had their membership cards. Second, the CPGB's rank-and-file who did stay were told that the allegations of the party being reliant on "Moscow gold" from the KGB to survive was a filthy smear spread to discredit the British left... until they became senior enough to learn that it was completely true.
431
432!!! Not really parties, but listed for completion:
433
434* '''Independents'''\
435'''House of Commons status:''' Fourth-largest 'party'.[[note]]None were directly elected as independents.[[/note]]\
436'''Scottish Parliament:''' A single MSP.[[note]]Not directly elected as an independent.[[/note]]\
437'''Welsh Parliament:''' A single MS.[[note]]Not directly elected as an independent.[[/note]]\
438'''Northern Ireland Assembly:''' Two [=MLAs=].[[note]][[BaitAndSwitch Were]] both directly elected as independents.[[/note]]\
439\
440A small part of political process, mostly being in the legislatures from being elected for local issues (such as Dr. Richard Taylor, who was elected an MP in 2001 and 2005 to save his local hospital),[[note]]Technically, Taylor was elected from a party called "Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern". During his time in office, he was basically the only elected from this "party" at any level; however, since 2015 (five years after Taylor left Parliament, losing to a Tory in 2010), they've won a number of seats in the local council in Wyre Forest as a vaguely centre-left party with a particular focus on NHS issues (and that bleeding hospital).[[/note]] leaving their own party in protest to some issue (such as Sylvia Hermon, who was an ex-UUP member; and Douglas Carswell, who was an ex-Conservative and ex-UKIP member), or being kicked out of their own party for misbehaviour (Michelle Thomson and Natalie [=McGarry=] had to withdraw from the SNP whip, Charlie Elphicke had to withdraw from the Conservative whip, and Simon Danczuk had to withdraw from the Labour whip, all four due to being the subject of police investigations; all four were still independents at the time of their next election and were barred by their former parties from standing again[[note]]Elphicke was temporarily re-admitted right before Theresa May was to undergo a vote of no confidence, then kicked out again a few months later[[/note]]). Genuine independents are rare in the House of Commons (Sylvia Hermon being the only MP directly elected as an independent in the [=2010s=]), and most of them are far more likely to be people who originally represented a party before having the whip removed.\
441\
442Their numbers were somewhat inflated in September 2019 when Boris Johnson expelled 21 members of the Conservative Party for rebelling on a no-deal Brexit vote (a deeply controversial move for a number of reasons beyond just how many of them they were; the rebellion included two former Chancellors, three other former cabinet ministers, and Winston Churchill's grandson).\
443\
444After the 2019 election, the Commons was back to one independent -- an SNP member who was suspended from the party after nominations closed, meaning he still appeared on the ballot as SNP and won the seat. With Sylvia Hermon standing down at the 2019 election, the Commons no longer contains any [=MPs=] directly elected as independents; all current independents are [=MPs=] who lost the whip in scandals.\
445\
446Northern Ireland is the one exception to the rule, where independents do still appear to be a small but notable part of politics. The aforementioned Sylvia Hermon was a Northern Irish MP, and the Northern Ireland Assembly has consistently directly-elected at least one independent since 2011.
447
448* '''Crossbenchers'''\
449'''Current convenor''':[[note]]As independents, they obviously don't have any kind of collective position, and so don't have a "leader" or anything like that, but they do need someone to handle the administrative side of things and act as a nominal representative when necessary.[[/note]] Lord Judge.[[note]]He actually was a judge.[[/note]]\
450'''House of Lords:''' Second-largest grouping\
451\
452The most common Lords version of independents,[[note]]Some instead choose to refuse affiliation all together, or renounce it while holding special offices, or have their affiliation withdrawn due to misdemeanours, and are classed as "non-affiliated" instead.[[/note]] and account for about 20% of the members of the upper house. Generally, they are composed of experts in certain fields (for example, back in TheEighties, the Lords brought in several veterinarians to help with the animal welfare debate) and people given a peerage as a form of [[UsefulNotes/KnightFever honour]] because they'd run out of knighthoods to give them/the things they'd done warranted more than a knighthood (e.g. the architect Norman Foster, Baron Foster of Thames Bank), and have no official affiliation. Sit on the "crossbenches" in the Lords (between Government and Opposition, directly across from the Woolsack and Throne), unsurprisingly. Latter-day Commons Speakers who were awarded peerages tended to sit as crossbench peers.
453
454* '''Lords Spiritual'''\
455'''Current 'leader':''' The Archbishop of Canterbury.\
456'''House of Lords:''' Sixth-largest grouping.\
457'''[--(Set by statute as the 26 most senior bishops in the Church of England)--]'''[[note]]The reality is a little more subtle. The Archbishops of Canterbury, York, London, Durham and Winchester are always entitled to a seat in the house by virtue of their office, regardless of their length of service. Beyond that, the remaining 21 seats are nominally allocated to the 21 longest-serving England-based bishops in the Church (ruling out Gibraltar and the Isle of Man). However, in a surprising display of ValuesResonance, the Church temporarily altered the rules in 2015 so that any woman appointed as a bishop will automatically become a Lord Spiritual as soon as a vacancy arises, the aim being to hit a 50:50 ratio of male:female bishops in the House.[[/note]]\
458This curious inclusion in the House of Lords is due to Anglicanism being the "established church" of England (i.e. it is partially funded by the Treasury and the Government has some input in the selection of bishops). Generally, they only vote on ecclesiastical matters, but modern secularism and their hand in immensely watering down a government bill in 2010 are gradually making this arrangement ... unpopular.
459
460!!! And last, but certainly not least...
461[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/monster_raving_loony_party.png]]
462* The '''Official Monster Raving Loony Party''' (OMRLP)\
463'''Current leader:''' Alan "Howlong Laud" Hope (Local Councillor, Fleet).\
464'''House of Commons status:''' No seats.\
465\
466Joke party that exists to draw attention to political issues through satire. For a long time, the party was led by Screaming Lord Sutch, but after his suicide, their current leader, Howling Lord Hope, took over. Notable for actively trying ''not'' to get elected; their performance in the 1990 Bootle by-election, beating TheRemnant of the SDP (who had almost won Richmond a year prior) both killed off the SDP and deeply disturbed Sutch. Several apparently 'Loony' policies of theirs have actually been implemented over the years, including lowering the voting age to eighteen (the party's original platform as the "Teenage Party"), the issuing of passports for pets, and all-day opening for pubs.
467** While having few seats, they in fact get a surprisingly large number of votes, considering their stance.
468** When the first National Front councillor was elected, the media predictably went into crazy mode. Screaming Lord Sutch defused the situation by pointing out that, at the time, there were also three serving Loony councillors.
469
470[[/folder]]
471
472[[folder: The parties and elections]]
473
474UKIP's first major electoral success occurred in the National Assembly of Wales elections in 2016, where they gained seven [=AMs=] from zero as a result of disaffected Conservative, Labour, and Lib Dem voters in regions that combine high unemployment, poverty, and immigration. Nationally, UKIP and the Green Party have had very little electoral success, despite levels of support that would suggest returning a handful of legislators (2015: 12.6% and 3.8% respectively); the first MP from either party to get elected to the Commons was the Green Party leader Caroline Lucas in 2010. However, they have been more successful in getting members elected to the European Parliament, although UKIP, in common with a few other minor parties in history, have had a party member defect to them. Until 2009, the BNP (2010: 1.9%) had never been elected to anything more significant than a few local council seats until electing two [=MEPs=] in 2009, though they now have none. Before anyone gets too worried about the implications, they actually received ''fewer'' votes than the previous election, but lower turnout, in part due to an ongoing political scandal affecting the main parties more than hardline BNP supporters, meant they received a higher proportion of the total. Given that it effectively disenfranchises a great deal of the population, this, along with the Liberal Democrats' low seats-to-votes ratio, is one of the most common arguments for proportional representation. This can be seen in the 2016 Welsh elections where the regional vote, which is based on proportional representation, is how UKIP gained its seven [=AMs=].
475
476Political parties based in Great Britain, especially Labour, the Conservatives, and the Liberal Democrats, do not generally contest elections in Northern Ireland, although the Conservative party has contested elections and failed to make much of an impact. Instead, there is a completely separate set of political parties: Sinn Féin and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) are nationalist parties, supporting Northern Ireland leaving the UK and becoming part of the Republic of Ireland; while the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) are unionist parties, favouring Northern Ireland continuing as part of the UK; and the Alliance Party is non-sectarian.
477
478Sinn Féin is an abstentionist party, i.e. when its candidates win an election to the House of Commons, they refuse to take their seats as they would have to swear an oath of allegiance to the Crown. Sinn Féin also fields candidates across the border in the Republic of Ireland (where they do take their seats, but have historically done far worse; the 2011 elections did see a large improvement, however, and their candidate finished third in the 2011 presidential election, which was a seven-person contest). It is one of two political parties to operate actively in both the UK and Ireland.[[note]]The other being the People Before Profit Alliance, which contests elections in both Northern Ireland and the Republic. Fianna Fáil are registered on both sides of the border but have never fielded candidates in Northern Ireland; meanwhile, the Green Party in Northern Ireland is officially a branch office of the Republic's Green Party, but is autonomous of it.[[/note]]
479
480[[/folder]]
481
482[[folder: Major defunct parties]]
483
484* The '''Whigs''': (1678–1868) Supported aristocrats, the Hanoverian succession, and Presbyterians. Opposed to absolute monarchy. The roots of the Liberal Party. The Whigs were the anti-war party during UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution, with prominent Whig Edmund Burke making several impassioned speeches at least vaguely supportive of the American cause in Parliament. As a result, the American revolutionaries identified themselves with the Whigs and the Loyalists with the Tories. This had a few strange consequences. On one hand, when the New England wing of the Democratic-Republicans merged with the remainder of the Federalists, they decided to call themselves the Whig Party (go figure). On the other hand, the American Whigs, being anti-slavery, were responsible for naming and providing the ideology for the True Whig Party of Liberia, which, starting in 1870 (and ending only in 1971), was the ruling party in [[{{Irony}} the world's first one-party state. Oops.]]
485* The '''Radicals''' (late 18th century–1859): Progressive grouping which supported parliamentary reform, Catholic emancipation, and freedom of the press. They opposed the Corn Laws (a high tariff on cereal crops designed to protect rich landowning British aristocrats from Canadian and American competition; this policy made bread and beer more expensive, to the detriment of Britain's poor).
486* The '''Peelites'''' (1846–59): Members of the Conservative Party who backed Prime Minister Sir UsefulNotes/RobertPeel, they followed Peel when he left the Tories over his opposition to the Corn Laws. Supported by intellectuals and entrepreneurs, the Peelites advocated for free trade and what we would term technocracy in the civil service. Twenty years after the split with the Conservatives, they merged with the Whigs and Radicals, creating the Liberal Party. Noted Liberal PM UsefulNotes/WilliamGladstone was originally a Peelite.
487* The '''Liberal Party''': (1859–1988) Successors to the Whigs, Radicals, and Peelites. One of the two major parties in the 19th and early 20th century (along with the Conservatives). Supported Home Rule for Ireland and the expansion of the electoral franchise. Destroyed by UsefulNotes/TheIrishQuestion, internal fighting, the rise of the Labour Party and the [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI First World War]]. Precisely what was ultimately responsible is a subject of historical debate, with one analogy being that of a man being run over by a bus while having a heart attack. The remnants much later merged with the Social Democratic Party to form the modern Liberal Democrats. Of course, this being the UK, [[RebelliousRebel a remnant of the remnant continues to call itself the Liberal Party and claim a continuity with the earlier party]]. Said remnant is only popular in a few small places (read, the councils of Ryedale, Peterborough, and Liverpool, which have five, one, and three Liberal councillors respectively). Famous members included Prime Ministers William Gladstone, UsefulNotes/DavidLloydGeorge and, before he went back to the Tories, Winston Churchill.
488* The '''Irish Parliamentary Party''', also known as the Home Rule Party: (1873–1918) Another fallen giant. A moderate Irish nationalist party that was the third largest party in Westminster during its existence, and even held the balance of power at several points. Campaigned for Home Rule, a precursor of the current devolution situation. Destroyed by the rise of Sinn Féin, the party has the rather sad honour of the worst election meltdown in British political history: they went into the 1918 general election with 76 seats and emerged with just seven. A remnant staggered on in Northern Ireland until the ''1970s'' as the '''Nationalist Party''', eventually merging with the Northern Ireland Labour Party and a few other stragglers to become the SDLP. Famous members included Charles Stewart Parnell and John Redmond.
489* The '''Social Democratic Party''' (the SDP): (1981–1988) A mildly centre-left party formed in the early 1980s by members of the Labour Party who felt that the Labour Party was moving too far left to be electable. They got a few dozen Labour [=MPs=] and one Conservative MP, Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler, to join the party. The SDP almost immediately formed a close electoral alliance with the Liberal Party. For a time, this "SDP/Liberal Alliance" looked like they could win the 1983 election and forever alter the political landscape of Britain (Liberal leader David Steel even said "Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government" at their 1981 conference). But then UsefulNotes/TheFalklandsWar broke out, they came out with only 25 [=MPs=] (despite a vote share the Lib Dems have been unable to match since) and, after limping along a few more years, merged with the Liberal Party to become the Liberal Democrats. Like the Liberals, a remnant exists that claims continuity with the old SDP; it does even worse than the Liberal remnant.
490
491----
492Website/{{Wikipedia}} has a list of all political parties of note [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_Kingdom here]].
493
494[[/folder]]
495
496[[folder: The House of Lords]]
497
498The upper chamber of the Houses of Parliament. Members are one of three possible components:
499* '''Life peers''' -- appointed by the monarch on behalf of the government of the day. These appointments can be for political reasons (to reward a donor, a minister who lost their seat, or just to butter someone up); or for technocratic reasons (to inform debates by including expert opinions in the chamber). As you can imagine, the former tends to be distinctly more common. Can choose to take or leave a party whip. If they do not wish to identify with a political party, they can sit as crossbenchers or non-affiliated lords (see above).
500* '''Lords Spiritual''' -- the twenty-six senior-most bishops of the Church of England. This is a holdover from the fact that the Church of England is technically part of the state. Normally don't play a part in actual debates, but have been known to flout this now and then.
501* '''Hereditary peers''' -- members whose peerages are passed from parents to children. The chamber used to be almost entirely composed of this variety (who are traditionally from the landed gentry and upper classes), until the House of Lords Act 1999 had most of them replaced with appointed life peers. A set number of 92 remain, 'elected' by all hereditary peers eligible to sit in the House. Can choose to identify with or without a party whip in the same manner as life peers.
502
503The purpose of the House of Lords is to act as a checking system for the House of Commons and to scrutinise any bills that are passed through Parliament (although they can also submit new bills, this happens only rarely). This rather [[BrokenBase divides opinion in political experts and non-experts alike]]: some think that having unelected members of Parliament vitiates the principles of democracy and that the second house should also be elected by the public, while others believe that having two elected chambers would be a bad idea, since it could lead to the same party being dominant in both, and thus be able to force bills through with no opposition.
504
505The Lords consist of 741 active members and have the power to veto or delay any move by the Commons, which explains why they still exist. However, there are restrictions: the Lords cannot permanently affect any bill that seeks to fulfill promises made in the government's manifesto, nor can they affect any bill that is concerned solely with public money or taxation. The government may also force a bill past the House of Lords via the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, although this is rare, being last done over fox hunting. If you were wondering how a bill allowing the Commons to bypass the Lords was created, the Lords voted in favour of it (eventually; the Prime Minister got the King to threaten to stack the House in his favour by appointing more Lords).
506
507The House of Lords historically featured Law Lords (formally the Lords of Appeal in Ordinary), who acted as the highest court of appeal in the UK (usually as the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, with decisions being presented and ''pro forma'' passed as motions by the Lords as a whole). However, the Blair government, desiring to increase the separation of the judiciary and the legislature (partly because the EU had made some noises about the arrangement being suspicious), abolished the system. The new Supreme Court of the United Kingdom was established in 2009, taking over the Appellate Committee's duties ... and pretty much everything else about the Appellate Committee, as well, since the Law Lords all became Supreme Court Justices, the Law Lords who had become Justices got to keep their seats in the House (not that it mattered, since they never used them), and future justices would be given baronial titles without seats. So essentially, nothing changed.
508
509[[/folder]]
510
511[[folder: The Privy Council and Cabinet]]
512
513The Privy Council has nothing, usually, to do with toilets. It has a lot less power than it used to (the Cabinet, a subcommittee, has most of that). It consists of former and current Cabinet members, leaders of the big three political parties, plus a few other people that get invited to the show. The main advantages of membership is that (A) it's for life, (B) you can call yourself "Right Honourable", (C) you can sit on the steps of the throne during debates if you're a member of the House of Lords, and (D) you get access to top-secret documents.
514
515The Privy Council also has a Judicial Committee, consisting of the Justices of the Supreme Court and a few other judges. Its domestic jurisdiction, once wide-ranging, is now limited to a few random tribunals which very few people have heard of or care about (the ecclesiastical courts? the High Court of Chivalry? ''The Disciplinary Committee of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons?''[[note]]This jurisdiction is still alive as of 2014 in [[http://jcpc.uk/decided-cases/docs/JCPC_2013_0030_Judgment.pdf a case]] involving evidential standards for "unfit to practice" hearings![[/note]]); the main exception is that it hears cases on appeal in admiralty -- that is, the law of seagoing vessels -- from certain courts. It may also give "advice" should the Government ask for it.[[note]]The last time this jurisdiction was used was in 2016 in ''[[https://www.jcpc.uk/cases/jcpc-2015-0079.html In the matter of the Baronetcy of Pringle of Stichill]]''; the Government refers to the JCPC a troublesome case on whether DNA evidence can be used to unseat three whole generations of a major Scottish clan, so that it can have a judicial determination.[[/note]] However, it serves as the highest court of appeal for Britain's Crown Dependencies (UsefulNotes/TheChannelIslands and the Isle of Man) and Overseas Territories (numerous, most notably UsefulNotes/{{Gibraltar}} and UsefulNotes/TheFalklandIslands), certain Commonwealth realms, certain Commonwealth republics, and the Sultanate of UsefulNotes/{{Brunei}}. When sitting for this purpose, jurists from the country in question are appointed to the Privy Council to hear the case. This procedure has been abolished in the more developed Commonwealth realms, although it existed more recently than you might think -- Australia abolished it so recently that one of the most famous Judicial Committee decisions, the "''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overseas_Tankship_(UK)_Ltd_v_Morts_Dock_and_Engineering_Co_Ltd Wagon Mound]]''" case of 1961, was actually an appeal from the Supreme Court of New South Wales.
516
517Upon the death of the monarch, sovereign power devolves to the Privy Council until the latter officially proclaims the heir to be king or queen; the Council, in turn, generally does so right away and in any case is required to do so as soon as the monarch takes his/her oath to protect the Church of Scotland (the only oath the monarch is required to take upon taking the throne rather than at coronation).
518
519!!Government Departments, Agencies, and the Civil Service
520
521For the actual work of administering the country, there are a fair few government bodies. The highest in rank are the Government Departments (the name "Ministry" is virtually unused now), many of which are based in Whitehall -- although, in true British fashion, stuff will be farmed out elsewhere. These departments tend to chop and change with each new administration, since there is no law regulating them. However, the ones that have stood the test of time are:
522
523* '''The Cabinet Office''':\
524[[AC:Current Cabinet Office Minister: John Glen (MP, Salisbury)]]\
525Based in Downing Street, they aid the PM in his or her job. For the benefit of confused Yanks, that makes them roughly equivalent to the Executive Office of the President, i.e., the immediate staff of the leader him/herself. They have a rather cool briefing room called COBRA (Cabinet Office Briefing Room A), which ministers will meet in during a crisis. The position is not currently in use, as its roles have been divided amongst several other offices.
526* '''Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster''':\
527[[AC:Current Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster: Oliver Dowden (MP, Hertsmere)]]\
528Ostensibly the office for the person responsible for the estates and rents of the British sovereign's private estates, in practice the holder of this post's involvement in these affairs is slight, and the post tends to go to someone considered the prime minister's 'fixer', providing cross-departmental oversight; indeed, the position has frequently been doubled up with that of Cabinet Office Minister in the past.
529* '''The Treasury''':\
530[[AC:Current Chancellor of the Exchequer: Jeremy Hunt (MP, South West Surrey)\
531Current Chief Secretary to the Treasury: Laura Trott (MP, Sevenoaks)]]\
532By far the most important institution of British government following Parliament itself, and given that holds functions that are usually spread across multiple departments in other countries, it is perhaps one of the most powerful finance ministries in the world; indeed, the prime minister's ''official'' title, which gives them most of their perks, is 'First Lord of the Treasury'. Featuring two Cabinet ministers -- the Chancellor of the Exchequer and their deputy, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury (although since the 2015 election the latter has been downgraded to "also attending Cabinet" rather than a full member). The Chancellor is usually either one of the most powerful [=MP=]s after the Prime Minister, and often TheStarscream (e.g. Gordon Brown), or someone supposedly more pliant and easy to control.[[note]]As in the case of Rishi 'Dishy Rishi' Sunak, a handsome, charming, and supposedly easy to manage replacement for the difficult and powerful Sajid Javid, the latter may quickly become the former. Sunak resigned as a result of the Chris Pincher scandal, leading to the Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi taking over. Then, after the Truss interregnum, Sunak became Prime Minister. Some trends are apparently too strong to defy[[/note]] Sets taxation policies.
533* '''The Home Office''':\
534[[AC: Current Home Secretary: James Cleverley (MP, Braintree)]]\
535Nothing to do with housing, this is the department that deals with the police and the security services. Was split into two in 2007, with the new Ministry of Justice getting prisons and absorbing the Department of Constitutional Affairs, after being declared "not fit for purpose". Officially the "Home Department", but nobody ever calls it this.
536* '''The Foreign and Commonwealth Office''':\
537[[AC:Current Foreign Secretary: [[UsefulNotes/DavidCameron David Cameron, The Lord Cameron]] ]]\
538Formerly the Foreign Office, which people often still call it today, it's run by the Foreign Secretary and its job is rather obvious. The bit about the "Commonwealth" is because Commonwealth countries -- and especially Commonwealth realms, which do, after all, have the same head of state as Britain -- are not technically "foreign"; witness how Britain has an ambassador to the U.S. but a high commissioner to Canada and India. The position of Foreign Secretary is one of the 'four great offices of state', but the department is possibly the most difficult to wrangle, as it's notorious for being the weirdest in the Civil Service. While more conventional these days, ambassadors and high commissioners were routinely (and not entirely inaccurately) accused of GoingNative and were frequently {{Bunny Ears Lawyer}}s. With a default setting of 'pragmatic', it routinely ignores the Foreign Secretary whenever it feels it can get away with it-- even in 2021, EU leaders in particular note the difference between the cosmopolitan and professional Foreign Office and the boorish and bullheaded political ideologues. In 2020, it merged with DFID (the Department for International Development)-- a move which is seen as politicising Britain's aid policy.
539* '''Ministry of Defence ([=MoD=])''':\
540[[AC:Current Defence Secretary: Grant Shapps (MP, Welwyn Hatfield)]]\
541Again self-explanatory. Home is a large, imposing white building in Whitehall, with statues around it, which is not particularly advertised, but rather obvious.
542* '''The Northern Ireland Office, The Scotland Office, and The Wales Office''':\
543[[AC:Current Northern Ireland Secretary: Chris Heaton-Harris (MP, Daventry)\
544Current Scotland Secretary: Alister Jack (MP, Dumfries and Galloway)\
545Current Wales Secretary: David TC Davies (MP, Monmouth)]]\
546Before the devolution settlements of the 1990s, these were the people in charge of running the local affairs of the non-English parts of the UK.[[note]]Northern Ireland previously had a devolved government from 1921 to 1972, but this got into [[UsefulNotes/TheTroubles some]] [[{{Pun}} trouble]], with the NIO taking control from 1972 to 1998.[[/note]] Many of their powers, particularly those of the Scotland Office, were removed after devolution, and nowadays the departments chiefly act as liaisons and lobbyists between the Westminster government and the devolved government, and have certain reserve powers to intervene if the devolved government falls apart.[[note]]As of yet, these have only been used in Northern Ireland-- to suspend the Northern Irish Parliament in 1972, suspend the Northern Irish Assembly in 2002, and call a snap election to the Northern Irish Assembly in 2017.[[/note]] Because of this, these offices are seen as less important than they were prior to devolution, and for several years the Scotland secretary would simultaneously run another department as well (Alistair Darling and Douglas Alexander were both simultaneously Secretaries of State for Scotland and Transport, and Des Browne doubled up with Defence).
547
548The other departments in the Cabinet have been known to change on the whim of a prime minister (the last change being in 2018 when the Communities and Health Departments were randomly renamed for no terribly compelling reason), but are currently the following:
549* '''Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)''':\
550[[AC:Current Business Secretary: Kemi Badenoch (MP, Saffron Walden)]]\
551Created in 2016 from the Department for Energy and Climate Change, and the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills. Responsible for business policy, consumer affairs, competition regulation, research, energy policy, intellectual property ... and outer space.
552* '''Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)''':\
553[[AC:Current Culture Secretary: Lucy Frazer (MP, South East Cambridgeshire)]]\
554The department responsible for trying to make people excited about the British Olympics team, while attempting to stop everyone complaining about the country's broadband infrastructure, and occasionally rein in the BBC without arousing public wrath. It usually fails miserably at all three of these things.
555* '''Department for Education ([=DfE=])''':\
556[[AC:Current Education Secretary: Gillian Keegan (MP, Chichester)]]\
557Responsible for schools, teachers, the curriculum, and adoption. But only in England.
558* '''Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)''':\
559[[AC:Current Environment Secretary: Steve Barclay (MP, North East Cambridgeshire)]]\
560Responsible for keeping the farmers happy. Also handles national parks, air quality, conservation ... basically anything environmental. Most of this department's work only applies to England, with the devolved administrations having their own equivalent departments.
561* '''Department of Health and Social Care ([=DHSC=])''':\
562[[AC:Current Health Secretary: Victoria Atkins (MP, Louth and Horncastle)]]\
563Responsible for keeping the NHS running (though in which direction is debatable depending on your views) and telling junior doctors that they don't know anything about being junior doctors. But again, only in England.
564* '''Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DHCLG)''':\
565[[AC:Current Housing Secretary: Michael Gove (MP, Surrey Heath)]]\
566Deals with the cries of local councils. Also responsible for housing,[[note]]This was always part of the brief but was only added to the department's name in 2018 -- prior to that it was just "Communities and Local Government."[[/note]] building regulations, the fire service, and making people be nice to each other. But, yet again, only in England -- Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales all have their own regional equivalents (see the "Devolution" section).
567* '''Department for International Trade ([=DfIT=])''':\
568[[AC:Current Trade Secretary: Kemi Badenoch (MP, Saffron Walden)]]\
569The department responsible for convincing people that they want to stock British things in their country. Re-formed in 2016 (the department had been divided up since the 1980s) when the need for international trade deals (formerly negotiated by the EU on behalf of Britain) suddenly became a bit... more pressing. Also serves as President of the Board of Trade (a role held by the Business secretary prior to 2016).
570* '''Ministry of Justice ([=MoJ=])''':\
571[[AC:Current Justice Secretary: Alex Chalk (MP, Cheltenham)]]\
572For the whole UK -- responsible for human rights, data protection, and the Supreme Court. In England and Wales only, also gets to deal with all the prisons (after the Home Office didn't want to do this any more). The Justice secretary also holds the post of Lord Chancellor.
573* '''Department for Transport ([=DfT=])''':[[note]]Or "[=DafT=]" to readers of ''Magazine/PrivateEye''.[[/note]]\
574[[AC:Current Transport Secretary: Mark Harper (MP, Forest of Dean)]]\
575Responsible for Network Rail (but not the trains, or most of the stations, or anything in Northern Ireland), and selling the rights to run trains on UK railways to other countries' state railway companies, while otherwise attempting everything possible (even against all reason) to avoid having any UK state railway company themselves.
576* '''Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)''':\
577[[AC:Current Work and Pensions Secretary: Mel Stride (MP, Central Devon)]]\
578The ones responsible for benefits, employment, and health and safety. But only in England, Scotland, and Wales -- NI goes its own way on this. Gets a little bit of controversy for accusing everyone of being benefit cheats and for doing things like asking double-amputees to prove they're disabled.
579
580Also not strictly Cabinet posts, but included for completion since their holders usually attend Cabinet meetings:
581* '''Leader of the House of Commons/Lords''':\
582[[AC:Current Leader of the House of Commons: Penny Mordaunt (MP, Portsmouth North)\
583Current Leader of the House of Lords: Nicholas True, The Lord True]]\
584The people responsible for dealing with all the procedural nonsense in either House, and basically helping arrange what goes on in the government's allotted speaking time (the Speaker or Lord Speaker decides how much time in general that the government and opposition get).
585* '''Attorney General'''\
586[[AC: Current Attorney General: Victoria Prentis (MP, Banbury)]]\
587The government's in-house legal advisor ... [[UsefulNotes/BritishCourts but only in England and Wales]]. Basically, they make sure the government is acting within established law.
588* '''Chief Whip'''\
589[[AC: Current Chief Whip: Simon Hart (MP, Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire)]]\
590Responsible for government discipline -- making sure government [=MPs=] vote the way they're supposed to, trying to avoid the leaks of any embarrassing information to the press, and acting as a communication channel between the backbenchers and Cabinet. Usually a rather secretive (and occasionally forgotten) role as the Chief Whip naturally avoids interviews. Given a new light and brought into the public consciousness by an entirely fictional character -- the Machiavellian MagnificentBastard Francis Urquhart of ''Series/{{House of Cards|UK}}''.
591
592The Civil Service are the people who run the departments. There are a lot of people with the title "Secretary" in these departments, but they're not actual secretaries: there's a ''Series/YesMinister'' scene that ends with the line "Mrs. [=McKay=] types ... She's the secretary."
593
594The Prime Minister may also appoint a Deputy Prime Minister or First Secretary of State (the latter of which is usually referred to as "deputy prime minister in all but name", and indeed some people have held both posts simultaneously), although this is not obligatory and both offices have gone unused for extended periods of time. Indeed, in Theresa May's ministry, David Lidington held neither office but was considered her ''de facto'' deputy.
595
596Despite implying seniority over all other members of the Cabinet, both titles are purely honorific and carry no specific power or authority of their own and are often doubled up with another Cabinet-level post (George Osborne was both Chancellor and First Secretary in the second Cameron ministry). The post of deputy prime minister is currently held by Oliver Dowden under Rishi Sunak.
597
598[[/folder]]
599
600[[folder: Devolution]]
601
602Although the UK Parliament is in the Westminster area of London, England, three of the four constituent countries have their own regional administrations: the Scottish Parliament (established in 1999), the Welsh Parliament (also created in 1999), and the Northern Ireland Assembly (pre-dating both in 1998). London also has its own devolved administration in the form of the London Assembly, created in 2000. England at large, however, does not have any devolution in that sense, although several attempts have been made in the past.\
603\
604The members of each devolved legislature have their own titles equivalent to Westminster's "Member of Parliament":
605* Scotland has '''Members of the Scottish Parliament''' ([=MSPs=]).
606* Wales has '''Members of the Senedd''' ([=MSs=], previously known as Assembly Members [=[AMs]=] prior to 2020).
607* Northern Ireland has '''Members of the Legislative Assembly''' ([=MLAs=]).
608* London has '''Assembly Members''' ([=AMs=], not to be confused with the former name for Wales' legislators above)
609\
610These structures have limited powers over their respective countries, with several matters remaining in the hands of the UK national government. They each have different degrees of self-control, with Scotland having devolved the most power (and having its own, entirely different legal system).\
611\
612Each of the three devolved administrations also contains a distinguishable nationalist element. The Scottish Parliament has the SNP, the Welsh Parliament has Plaid Cymru, and the Northern Ireland Assembly has Sinn Féin and the SDLP. These parties all advocate a separation of their respective country from the United Kingdom in some form or another. Except for the SNP in the Scottish Parliament, however, these elements have not usually been in the majority in devolved elections. Although Plaid Cymru has held greater power in Wales than its voting success might initially indicate, it's been the main party to support the Welsh Labour government through successive minority or weak-majority assembly terms, either through formal coalition government or less formal 'agreements'. In Northern Ireland, Sinn Féin has formed one half of the mandatory coalition government since 2005, and tends to fare somewhat similarly in elections to the very-unionist DUP.\
613\
614England does not currently have its own parliament, possibly because England's size relative to other parts of the UK is such that an English parliament will not be more representative than the UK parliament. There have been proposals for English regions to have devolved parliaments or 'regional assemblies', and there is currently a Greater London Assembly that has similar powers to a devolved parliament, but no others yet.\
615\
616Northern Ireland previously had a devolved parliament with an actual prime minister from 1921 to 1972 (the term "first minister" hadn't been invented yet). Members of the Northern Irish Parliament were also known as [=MPs=] (sometimes abbreviated to "[=MPNI=]" or "[=MP(NI)=]" to avoid confusion), rather than the modern "[=MLA=]". The Northern Irish Parliament wielded a great deal more power than the current NI Assembly (and indeed its modern counterparts in Wales and Scotland) but was suspended in 1972 due to the worsening Troubles, and eventually abolished altogether in 1973, with Westminster ruling the country directly from then on. The current Northern Ireland Assembly was only officially established in 1998.\
617\
618Each devolved administration also tends to get referred to by a more colloquial geographical name, in the same way "Westminster" is used in reference to the UK Parliament:
619* The Scottish Parliament is usually referred to as '''Holyrood''', after the area of Edinburgh in which the Parliament is based.
620* The Welsh Parliament gets '''Cardiff Bay''', again after the area of Cardiff where it's based.
621* The Northern Irish Assembly is usually called '''Stormont''', after the name of the estate in Belfast that it occupies.
622* The London Assembly occasionally gets '''City Hall''', after its home building, but this doesn't get used as often as the other examples.
623\
624The Scottish Parliament, Welsh Parliament, Northern Ireland Assembly, and the London Assembly are elected for fixed terms of four years.[[labelnote:Although...]]For all intents and purposes they are now operating for five years each. After the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition passed the Fixed Term Parliaments Act 2011, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin fixing the term of the Westminster Parliament to five years]], the date of the following Westminster election (then 2015) coincided with the scheduled year of the next devolved elections. Westminster and devolved elections aren't allowed to happen in the same year, because apparently [[ViewersAreMorons this is confusing for the voters]]. But [[ViewersAreGeniuses referenda are seemingly okay to mix]]. Anyway. The four devolved governments were given a one-time choice of either shortening their term to three years and having elections in 2014, or extending for five years and having the elections in 2016. Doing the first option and taking the one-year cut would have solved the four-year problem until 2030 (assuming no early Westminster elections), but naturally when given the option of having a year more or a year less in power, you know which one a politician is going to choose. As it stands currently, devolved elections will ''always'' coincide with Westminster ones, necessitating extending the devolved government term to five years every time, unless either they decide to take the three-year option (unlikely at best), or Westminster calls an early election (difficult since the FTPA came in, but possible in certain conditions -- no-confidence votes; or temporarily/permanently repealing the Act, but this requires a two-thirds majority, which the current government do not have, and Labour are unlikely to give them). The calling of an early general election in 2017 alongside the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly passing legislation delaying their next elections until 2021 -- and then presumably every four years afterwards -- mitigated this issue somewhat.[[/labelnote]][[labelnote:That said...]]The calling of another early general election in 2019 has muddled the matter again. Wales has also passed legislation to permanently move to a five-year cycle from 2021, whereas the other administrations technically still operate on four-year terms. The Covid-19 pandemic also caused the London Assembly to delay its election until 2021. So the next elections for Scotland, NI, Wales and London are due in 2021. Assuming Westminster continues to operate full five-year terms, the 2029 elections will overlap with those in Scotland, NI and London, but not Wales (which, unless there are any more early general elections, will never overlap with Westminster again).[[/labelnote]]. All devolved legislatures have an element of proportional representation in the electoral process (or in the case of Northern Ireland, are ''entirely'' proportional) to ensure that the eventual composition of the elected assembly more nearly reflects the proportion of votes cast for the various parties; e.g. the Welsh Assembly has 60 members, 40 of whom are elected for geographical constituencies which match the 40 House of Commons seats which Wales has; the other 20 members are elected from regional lists to adjust the overall seat distribution in each region in line with the proportion of votes cast between the parties.\
625\
626Following the 2016 elections, control of the devolved parliaments is as follows:
627* The '''Scottish Parliament''' and Government are run by the Scottish National Party (SNP), who lost their overall majority in the 2016 elections, and now operate as a minority government in a power-sharing agreement with the Scottish Green Party. (Note that the electoral system used by the Scottish Parliament was designed in such a way that one party winning an overall majority was meant to be ''impossible''.) The Conservatives have now become the official opposition of the Scottish Parliament, after winning 31 [=MSPs=] to Labour's 24 in the 2016 election.
628* The '''Welsh Parliament''' and Government are run by Labour. Labour won exactly 30 seats in the 60-seat assembly, only just enough to function as a "majority" government (with the Plaid Cymru Presiding Officer only able to cast a vote in very limited circumstances).
629* The '''Northern Ireland Assembly''' and Executive are run by a coalition government of four parties -- Sinn Féin, the DUP, the Alliance Party, and the UUP. The NI Assembly is designed to be run by a mandatory coalition of at least two parties (one nationalist, one unionist), to prevent either the unionist or nationalist 'sides' from excluding the other. Smaller parties (of sufficient size and representation) may also join the Executive if they wish. The DUP supplanted the UUP as the largest unionist party, and Sinn Féin supplanted the SDLP as the largest nationalist party, in the mid-2000s. This situation has remained unchanged since, although Sinn Féin managed to overtake the DUP in Assembly seats for the first time in 2022.
630* The '''London Assembly''' is under no overall control (the council equivalent to saying 'hung parliament'), but Labour is the biggest party, holding 11 out of 25 seats. The current mayor of London is Labour's Sadiq Khan, who upon election in May 2016 became the first Muslim mayor of a major Western capital, as well as the politician with the largest personal mandate in the history of the United Kingdom.\
631\
632The Mayor of London should not be confused with the Lord Mayor of London. The latter is an entirely ceremonial position in the separate administrative area of the City of London, which has its own police, and serves only for a year at a time, while the former oversees the governance of the Greater London area. The most famous lord mayor of London is Richard Whittington (c.1350–1423), who served as the inspiration for the pantomime character Literature/DickWhittington.\
633\
634The devolution of Scotland has brought something called "the West Lothian question" to greater prominence.[[note]]The term dates from November 1977, when Tam Dalyell, Labour MP then representing the Scottish constituency of West Lothian, lampshaded the matter in a debate about Scottish devolution (which he opposed), and in response Enoch Powell referred to it as "the West Lothian question."[[/note]] This is the rather odd situation in which a Scottish MP can vote on English education policy, but not vice versa (despite Scottish education being devolved and there being no restriction on English [=MPs=] also running as [=MSPs=]): this was exactly how top-up fees got introduced in 2004; Scottish Labour [=MPs=], who wouldn't be affected by their introduction, voted overwhelmingly in favour for them, giving the party their majority (of five!) votes to push the legislation through. The Conservatives want Scottish [=MPs=] to be barred from these sorts of votes, while the SNP argue that that will create two tiers of [=MPs=], and as a UK party, they should vote on UK issues.\
635\
636This issue was partly solved in 2016 when the Conservative government introduced what it called "English votes for English laws". This allowed the Speaker to designate sections of bills as "England only" or "England and Wales only". These would then first be voted on by a so-called "legislative grand committee" of all English [=MPs=] (or English and Welsh [=MPs=] as appropriate), before later being considered by the House as a whole. While not a complete solution, given that Welsh, Scottish, and Northern Irish [=MPs=] can still vote on these laws at a later stage, it is at least a start. This dilemma was further complicated by the 2017 Conservative minority government relying on the votes of Northern Irish DUP [=MPs=] (who would not be affected thanks to devolution) to pass its legislation. With the return to a majority government in 2019, this "East Antrim question" was resolved. The "English votes for English laws" system was then subsequently scrapped in 2021, with no replacement yet in sight.
637
638!!Local Government
639
640Local government in the UK is a remarkably complex subject, with not all areas having the same system. Most areas of England have county councils, with district councils below them (many districts are called boroughs or cities). However, there are some unitary authorities (whose councils are either called London boroughs, metropolitan boroughs, cities, counties, districts, or just councils) which can be best thought of by Americans as what you would get if the entirety of Southern California became one state and combined its local and state authorities into one government. The whole of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are divided into unitary authorities. Northern Ireland has districts (though two have city status), Scotland has council areas (four -- Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, and Glasgow -- being city councils), and Wales has principal areas known as either counties, cities, or county boroughs.
641
642In most rural parts and some urban areas of England the districts are subdivided into civil parishes which are run by parish councils. Despite their depiction in the {{BritCom}} ''Series/TheVicarOfDibley'', they have nothing to do with the Church of England (which is also divided into parishes which are run by parochial church councils). Sometimes the two councils may have overlapping membership, but they are totally separate entities. Parish councils have little power, normally, but if they cover a small town, the local district or county council may devolve certain matters to them, e.g. public parks. Parish councils that cover towns are called town councils, and those that cover cities are, naturally enough, city councils; such councils are led by a town or city mayor. Some parishes have too small a population to have a council and instead have an annual parish meeting where the whole parish is invited to discuss local matters. Wales has similar bodies called community councils. The equivalent bodies no longer exist in Scotland or Northern Ireland.
643
644Local government is responsible for things like planning, schools, libraries, and refuse collection.
645
646Local councils are elected every May: which ones and which seats vary from year to year, but most seats have terms four years long. These elections, like US midterm elections, are often an opportunity to protest the government. Local issues also play a big role.
647
648[[/folder]]

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