UK Politics?

[Warren Peace]

I've only spent a few hours in the UK, and that was in an airport in London. I don't know very much about UK politics.

I know that Tony Blair is part of the UK Labour Party and supported the US Democratic Party's Al Gore during the US election in 2000, then after Bush won he threw himself in with Bush's imperialist cabal and sent troops to Iraq.

What are the major political parties in the UK? What are their beliefs? Labour? Conservative? Liberal? National?

[Thomas]

There's the Tories - They're a load of conservatives.

and

The Lib Dems - Slightly left of labour, but still strongly right wing.

And then there's Respect, the BNP, UKIP, Veritas and so on.

I'm a member of the ISR (International Socialist Resistance) and the Socialist Party (www.socialistparty.org.uk (http://www.socialistparty.org.uk))

[Donnie]

The Conservative Party- Bunch a right wing upper class tosh

The Labour Party- The Labour Party was set up by the Trade Unions for workers reforms and rights within capitalism. It's important to state that the Labour Party was never set up for Socialism although when the Labour Party was set up in the early and up to the 80's there were a few Marxists, although now they have all been kicked out. The Labour Party now stands for the rich and full on capitalism.

The Liberal Democrats- A middle class party if you ask me, they are left than labour although there still right wing.

The British National Party- A bunch of Fascist's who have won council seats in local elections. The party is lead by an upper class fascist idiot

Veritas- A Nationalist party that’s also an upper class party. The party leader is lead by a bigger version of an Umpa Lumpa.

National Front- A bunch of Fascist who have not one any elections I don't think

Socialist Party of Great Britain- As it says in the name

Socialist Party- As it says in the name

Scottish Socialist Party- As it says in the name

Sinn Fein- A bunch of republicans and is the political wing of the IRA.

Ulster Unionist Party- Its a unionist party. It has been in conflict with Sinn Fein for ages but the Good Friday agreement put an end to Unionist and Republican conflicts in N.Ireland....or so they think.

White Nationalist Party- A bunch of Fascists that is based in Sheffield to antagonize the white youth between the Asian communities. I say we give the White Nationalist party a big boot in the face!!

New Communist Party- Split from the old communist party

Communist Party of Great Britain- As is said in the name

Revolutionary Communist Party of Britain (Marxist-Leninist) - As stated in the name

UK Independence Party- A bunch of xenophobic wankers.

Green Party- As said in the name

Novemeber the 9th Society- As it says in the name. They are only the party to declair themselves National Socialists. But we all know the BNP, NF and White Nationalist Party are also a bunch of Nazis idiots.

Erm I can't think of any more at the moment

[Warren Peace]

Thanks, both your comments explained a lot. But what are the top few most influencial parties? And what do they think of each other? For example, do Conservatives support Tony Blair?

[Entrails Konfetti]

What are the civic organs in the U.K. and how do they work ?

[Donnie]

Tories hate Blair for everything even though there basically the same. The feud between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party date’s back since the creation of the Labour Party. The feud is basically over "working class party vs. upper class party"

And well both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party hate the Liberal Democrats because well their Liberals.

The Liberal Democrats hate the Labour Party because they went to the war on Iraq and I don't know why they don't like the Tories, I think it could be just because they are two authoritarian

The Organs of the UK political system are as follows

* The Legislative
* The Executive
* The Judiciary

The UK political system says it has so called "separation of powers" that’s supposed to promote Liberal constitutionalism. The two powers which are separated in government are the House of Commons which make’s and decides the laws. Then there is the House of Lords which sort of provides a check and balance on the House of Commons.
There are the devolved assemblies that were introduced in 1997 as part of Labours so called "constitutional reform" although this is bullshit because for one the 3 devolved assemblies do not have entrenched powers.

The 3 devolved assemblies are as follows:
* Scottish Parliament
* Welsh Assembly
* Northern Ireland Assembly

The Scottish Parliament has tax varying powers, administrative powers and judicial powers.
The Welsh Assembly has Administrative and Judicial Powers and Northern Ireland just has Judicial Powers

Although the Northern Ireland assembly has been suspended due to growing antagonisms between the Unionists and Republicans.

Oh and Britain has an un-written constitution which means the constitution can be subject to change now and then.

Also I forgot to mention that we have the GLA which is the Greater London Assembly which is one of the first regional assemblies, but yet again the GLA powers are not entrenched so technically the GLA can be taken away, also it doesn’t have any powers really.

[monkeydust]

Some of these posts have been a bit misleading. British politics has traditionally been, basically, a two-party affair. In most of the 20th Century, at least after the First World War, this competiton has been between the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. Here's a summary.

Labour

Established at the turn of the century through a collaboration of the Independent Labour Movement, Left-wing intellectuals and the Trade Unions. The Labour Party was originally a working class, social-democratic party, seeking to achieve a degree of redistribution of wealth, public ownership of major industries and welfare.

More recently, especially since Tony Blair's leadership in the 1990s Labout have all but abandoned their leftwing heritage, abolishing the old Clause 4 which stipulated that there should be "collective ownership of the means of production and distribution".

Although the new argument is that social justice is not incompatible with the market, the point remains that economically Labour are no longer a leftwing party. Socially, however, the party remains fairly progressive.

Conservative

The Conservative Party were by far the most dominant party in the 20th Century. They've been consistent with their cautious behaviour, rightwing social views (until more recently) and advocacy of traditional values and institutions.

The Party drifted somewhat leftwing, economically, during the "postwar consensus" from about 1945-60. However they became staunchly economically liberal and socially right-wing with the emergence of the "new right" under Thatcher in the 70s and 80s. Now they're becoming slightly more liberal, but haven't fundamentally changed in the same way that Labour have.



There's also the Liberal Democrats.

They're third most important party, and the only really significant one nationally besides the two mentioned above. In their modern form they emerged following the amalgamation of former Liberal and Labour defecting Social Democrat MPs. They basically uphold modern Liberalism, but aren't (yet) commanding many MPs in parliament.

[Faceless]

The Labour Party- The Labour Party was set up by the Trade Unions for workers reforms and rights within capitalism. It's important to state that the Labour Party was never set up for Socialism although when the Labour Party was set up in the early and up to the 80's there were a few Marxists, although now they have all been kicked out. The Labour Party now stands for the rich and full on capitalism.

Presumably you are talking about the militant tendency. Not all of this organisation left the labour party, I am myself a member of Socialist Appeal, which continues to pursue the methods of militant. The decision of Peter Taaffe and his supporters to split and form the Socialist Party at a decisive point in the militant's history seriously weakened both daughter organisations.

[comradesteele]

can some one explan to me this respect party??? the one that guy made forgotten who. as a kinda old labour back at its working class roots or soemthing.

[Amusing Scrotum]

You're forgetting the Liberal Party of the 1890-1920 period in which Lloyd George was an influential member and later leader of the party and the Prime Minister.
Currently I am reading a biograaphy of him; and the argument could be made that his invovlement in the conception of the NHS was, in Britian, the biggest step ever taken towards a socialist state.

[Intifada]

can some one explan to me this respect party???

Founded by George Galloway, the RESPECT Party is left-wing but not militant. It's membership ranges from environmentalists, socialists, people who hate war and nuclear weapons, people who hate Blair and the New Labour Party, Muslims and other religious people.

It's aims are pretty left-wing.


Currently I am reading a biograaphy of him; and the argument could be made that his invovlement in the conception of the NHS was, in Britian, the biggest step ever taken towards a socialist state.

His reforms were minimal, but arguably laid the foundation of a furture Welfare State.

[Sir Aunty Christ]

Take all the Socialist parties. Are there any ideological differences between them? And if so what are they?

And are there any ideological differences between the communist parties?

[Che1990]

The Labour Party were originally called the Socialist Labour Party of Great Britain. Then it became New Labour and all the radical left-wingers were forced to leave (kicked out in other words). They are now very right-wing and capitalist.

[Amusing Scrotum]

Intifada - "His (Lloyd Goerge's) reforms were minimal, but arguably laid the foundation of a furture Welfare State."

Better for one person to lay a foundation, than a million to not.

I'm not saying he was especially socialist or even that good a Prime Minister. He had many failings.

However compared to the self proclaimed workers party, Labour, and most of their periods in Government. I'd say the foundations he layed for a socialist state were very good. Compared to anything the Labour Party achieved. His oposition to the Boer wars did him no harm either, in my opinion.

[Intifada]

The foundations for further reforms were laid by Lloyd George, but the creation of the Welfare State was, largely, the Labour Party's doing.

They created the NHS out of nothing, for example.

[Clarksist]

This may help as well:

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalc...xtremeright.php (http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/extremeright.php)

Its the Political Compass version of it, so you can get a visual idea of where evryone is in relation to one another.

[Dante]

Take all the Socialist parties. Are there any ideological differences between them? And if so what are they?

Yes there are! That is why there are different far left groups.

Right quick run down,
Socialist Workers Party - Cliffites, largest group in UK with maybe 2,000 active members. State cap theory on Russia, initiated RESPECT, a populist parliamentary party with Galloway at its head. Used to be affiliated to ISO in States
Socialist Party - Taffites around 450 members, british section of the CWI. Stands for local and national elections on a pretty reformist basis IMO.
Socialist Appeal - Grantites, buried deep in Labour still. Reckon they can win it to a Marxist programme. Part of the CMI
Alliance for Workers Liberty - pretty right wing group, does not call for troops out of Iraq, burecratic collectivist theory of Russia, has a two state solution for Israel and Palestine.
Workers Power - my organisation, part of the League for the Fifth International, check us out at www.workerspower.com.
Then there are some other groups like the ISG (fourth international), IBT, CPGB and others which are around. The Communist party of Britain still exists, has around a thousand members maybe, totally Stalinist, reformist and based on Trade union bureacrats in the upper echelons of the TU movement. Has a daily paper though.