Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Politics
Introduction
What is Politics ?
The activities associated with the governance of a country or area, especially the debate between parties having power
The activities of governments concerning the political relations between states: in the conduct of global politics, economic status must be backed by military capacity
How Does it All Work?
• The UK is a ‘constitutional monarchy’ - ‘monarchy’ basically means we have a queen, but 'constitutional’ means her power is limited by a constitution (agreement) that says that the government - a group of people elected by us - runs the country, so the queen is a kind of figurehead.
How do Politian's get elected
• The country is divided up into 650 sections (constituencies) each of which is represented by an Member of Parliament, or 'MP’. The MP is the person who gets the most votes in their constituency. Which party gets to run the country is decided on the number of MPs they have elected, not votes. The party with a majority - wins.
• The winning party will then make a 'cabinet’ - a group of MPs who will lead certain areas of policy and decision making. But decisions are made more than just once every 4 years, in order to make something happen - make it law or policy - it has to pass through the Houses of Parliament.
MPs and Councillors - their job. MPs and Councillors are there to represent their voters. They are voted for both on their own stances, and that of a party that they might belong to. We never vote for the prime minister (unless you live in their constituency) as they are always chosen by the party and sometimes affiliated bodies (for example because Labour was made with the unions, certain union members get a union as well as a party vote).
MPs and Councillors are your voice in the houses of parliament and local government. So if you don’t like the idea of a new law or decision that you hear about you can email them and ask them to vote against it, they have to respond as long as you put on an address in their area. You just need to put your postcode in at http://theyworkforyou.com and you can see what your MP has previously voted on, and write to them directly.
How are Laws Made ?• There are two main Houses of Parliament - the Commons and the
Lords - this is left over from ages ago when Lords were seen as way more important than regular people; 'commoners’. Then the country was run by the Lords - so no one was really elected. Now the Houses of Commons is elected, but the Lords is still made up of people who were given their titles, not voted for. Some people think this should change*, but having a second house is important to make sure the decisions of the first are double checked.To make something happen, an MP will propose a law, bill, or policy, and it will get
discussed, changed if necessary, and then voted on. It needs to get a majority of votes in both 'houses’ in order to go through. Your MP will be voting on things every week, and they don’t always have to do what their party says. This means you can write to them ('lobby’ them) or go and meet them to ask them to vote in a certain way.There are also governments for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland who get a certain budget and can make some independent decisions
