From the perspective of a foreigner to
Britain, what questions need to be answered in order to understand the recent
election in Britain, and the election system generally? Well, below are three basic questions that I
thought might shed some light.
1 – What is a general election?
A general election is the time when the
whole country (the UK) votes to decide which politicians will represent their
area in the House of Commons. The
party with the largest number of representatives in the House of Commons,
called Members of Parliament (MPs) will then usually form a government. It should not be confused with other
elections, such as local elections, European Parliament elections or regional
elections such as Scottish Parliament elections.
2 – Who are the major parties and who won?
The largest party is currently the
Conservative Party, sometimes nicknamed the Tories. As the name suggests, they are traditionally
conservative in outlook. In the last
election, they secured a majority of the seats in the House of Commons, or just
over half. That means that they can form
a government without the help of any other parties.
The second largest party is currently the
Labour Party. As the name suggests, they
have traditional ties with labour, or workers.
As the second-largest party, they are called the opposition.
There are a number of smaller parties, such
as the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), which wants to remove Britain
from the European Union and reduce immigration into Britain. There is the Scottish National Party (the
SNP), which is the largest party in Scotland and wants Scotland to become
independent from the UK. In the last
election, they won 56 out of 59 seats in Scotland. The Liberal Democrats and the Green Party
have support across the UK, and there are a number of smaller regional parties.
3 – How are representatives, or MPs,
chosen?
Britain’s general elections are decided by
the “first past the post” system. That
means that in each area, all of the votes are added up and whichever politician
has the highest number of votes is elected.
All of the votes for losing candidates or their party are then
not counted. It is called “first past
the post” because it is like a horse race.
Imagine that 10 horses are racing towards a finishing line where there
is a post. Whichever horse comes first
is the winner. All of the other horses
are losers and get nothing.
The system can seem a little unfair at
times. It stresses stability over
fairness. For example, UKIP candidates
received more votes in the general election than SNP candidates. But UKIP won only one seat and the SNP won
56. That is because UKIP voters were
divided across many areas. They got
about 12 per cent of the vote overall, but they only once got enough votes in a
single area to be the largest party. The
SNP’s votes all came in one region: Scotland.
Because their votes were concentrated in a narrow region, they were
often able to win the most votes in a single election district. So, with around half the total number of
votes, they have 55 more MPs.
***
Hey!
Wake up! Who told you you could
go to sleep? You might need this
information someday, and there will be a test.
Now tell me the nickname of the largest party in the UK...
to shed some light (on something) – to make
something clearer, or easier to understand
the House of Commons – Britain’s most
important parliament. The Prime Minister
and more than 600 other politicians sit here, and can propose and pass new laws
or changes to the law
a candidate – Someone who tries to be
selected for something such as a job; a politician who stands in an election
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