1、At the end of the session you should know:British elections and electoral systemThe political parties1. For how many years is a general election held once in the UK?Five years2. Who can stand for election as an MP?Anyone who is eligible to vote can stand as an MP.3. What are the three major parties?
2、The Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrats4. Which party is the party that spent most time in power?The Conservative Party5. Which party does Tony Blair belong to? The Labour Party 1. Importance of general elections (大选1 1的重要性) 2. Formation of the government (政府的形成)2 2 3. Vote of no confidence (
3、不信任投票)3 3 4. Political parties: The Conservative party (保守党), The Labor party (工党), Liberal Democrats (自由民主党) 5. Recent political trends in the UK (英国最近的政治动向) 6. Margaret Thatcher (玛格丽特撒切尔) John Major (约翰梅杰) Tony Blair (托尼布莱尔) Gorden Brown (戈登布朗)David William Donald Cameron4 7. class system in the B
4、ritish society (英国社会中的等级制度) 8. the hereditary aristocracy (世袭贵族) 9. ethnic relations in Britain (英国的民族关系)Part III Words & Expressionsaggressive adj. 挑衅的，侵犯的 constituency n. 选区，选举区 convict v. 证明有罪, 宣判有罪 culminate v. 告终，达到顶点 dismantle v. 废除，取消 eccentric adj. （人，行为等）古怪的，乖僻的 eligible adj. 在法律上合格的，有资格的 e
5、ntrepreneurship n. 企业家精神 get under way 开始进行 in a row （口）接连的，连接地 integration n. 结合，综合，融成一体 legitimacy n. 合法性，合理性 mechanism n. 途径，办法，机制 no-hoper n. （英口）必定失败的人，无成功希望的事 opinion polls 民意测验 pragmatic adj. 讲究实际的，实干的，实用主义的 proportional adj. 比例的，成比例的 rascal n. 流氓，无赖 redistributive adj. 再分发的，重新分配的 slit n. 狭长的
6、口子，夹缝 squalor adj. 卑鄙，道德败坏 substantial adj. 重大的，实质的，实在的 successive adj. 连续的，接连的 supplement v.n. 增补，补充 the House of Commons n. (英国) 下议院 Elections are held every five years.Voting is not compulsory and is from the age of 18.The party which wins the most seats forms the government. 1.1 The importance o
7、f elections (held every 5 years) 1) General elections are very important in the western democracy. According to the author, they provide opportunities for people to influence future government policies and to replace those incompetent political leaders. 2) Anyone who is eligible to vote with 500 pou
8、nds as deposit can stand as an MP. 3) After a government has been in power for 5 years it has to resign and hold a “general election”. 4) The electoral campaigns: before a general election, in order to make their ideologies and policies known to the public, the political parties would start their el
9、ectoral campaigns.1970 (MPs)18 June 1970Edward HeathConservativeFebruary 1974 (MPs)28 February 1974Harold WilsonLabourOctober 1974 (MPs)10 October 1974Harold WilsonJames CallaghanLabour1979 (MPs)3 May 1979Margaret ThatcherConservative1983 (MPs)9 June 1983Margaret ThatcherConservative1987 (MPs)11 Jun
10、e 1987Margaret ThatcherJohn MajorConservative1992 (MPs)9 April 1992John MajorConservative1997 (MPs)1 May 1997Tony BlairLabour2001 (MPs)7 June 2001Tony BlairLabour2005 (MPs)5 May 2005Tony BlairGordon BrownLabourConservatives Launch General Election Campaign with David Cameron Party leader Prime Minis
11、ter325 constituencies5 Government650 seats in Commons (MPs) 18years 6 500 pounds deposit parties650 constituencies(geographical areas)12650651Im a possible MP candidate!12650651The campaigns are not simply about telling people how good your policies are, but also about telling them how bad your oppo
12、nents are. So they can be quite aggressive and critical. Many British people complain that the campaigns are too negative, that the politicians do not properly explain their own policies, but instead explain why people shouldnt vote for their opponents.A government cannot stand for longer than five
13、years except in exceptional circumstances (it happened twice last century, when elections were delayed until the end of WWI and WWII.)The Prime Minister can call an election sooner than five years. It happens in two cases:In 1979, the government loses a “vote of no confidence” in the House of Common
14、s. That is, an MP (usually a member of an opposition party) puts forward a statement for the MPs to vote on saying that “This house no longer has confidence in the Government”. If a majority of MPS agree, then the government has effectively lost its ability to govern and is forced to resign and call
15、 a general election.An early election can also happen if the Prime Minister decides that the government is currently very popular (perhaps the economy is booming) and calls an early election hoping to win another five years rather than wait the full period and risk becoming unpopular in the meantime
16、 and losing the election.There are three major national parties:The Conservative PartyThe Labor PartyThe Liberal Democratsthe Conservativethe Labourthe Liberal Democratsthe Green PartyUlster Unionist PartySinn Fin PartyThe labor PartyThe Conservative PartyThe Liberal DemocratsEmerged at the end of t
17、he 19th centuryCame to power in 18th century,Formed in the late 1980s.The leader is Ed Miliband.(埃德米利班德) Others: Tony Blair, Gedon Brown etc.The leader is David Cameron(戴维卡梅伦). Others: Margaret Thatcher(玛格丽特撒切尔)Close relations with Labor Party.Came out of power in 2010.It is popular among older peop
18、le,A socialist party. They believe a society should be relatively equal in economic terms and part of the role of government is to act as a “redistributive” agent: transferring wealth from richer to the poorer by means of taxing the richer part of the society.The Conservative Party is the party that
19、 spent most time in power.From 1979 to 1997, it won 4 elections in a row and was in power for a long period.Setting up the National Health Service: to provide high quality health care for all, free, “from cradle to grave”.Nationalisation: changing from private to state ownership.Protecting the indiv
20、iduals right to acquire wealth and to spend it how they choose.Favoring low taxed.Receive a lot of their party funding from big companies.The Labour Party - party of underprivileged - party of reformists - aims at nationalization of big enterprises - more democratic and looser in organizationConserv
21、ative Party - developed from the Tory Party in 1830s - party of rich and privileged - opposed to nationalization - favor monopoly (垄断) capitalists The Liberal Democratic Party (自由民主党) - mixed economy with state-owned & private- owned enterprises - opposes isolationism (孤立主义政策) - Advocates policies b
22、ased on freedom of the individual and support for the adoption of Propositional Representation (比例代表制) at electionsUK now is adopting the winner-take-all （赢者全胜）system. The differences between the Labor and the Conservative party is one of degree, not an absolute.Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Tha
23、tcher玛格丽特玛格丽特希尔达希尔达撒切尔，撒切尔女男爵撒切尔，撒切尔女男爵1979-1990Conservative Thatcher with US First Lady Nancy Reagan at 10 Downing Street, 1986 The Thatchers with the Reagans 16 November 1988 Margaret Thatcher was Britains first female Prime Minister. A graduate of 7 Somerville College, Oxford, with a master of ar
24、ts degree from the University of Oxford, she worked as a research chemist and a barrister, concentrating on tax law, before being elected to the House of Commons in 1953.She held several ministerial appointments including education minister (1970-74). Elected leader of her Party in 1975, she became
25、Prime Minister in 1979. Known as a strong leader and an “astute Parliamentary tactician”, she knew how to handle disagreement, no matter from which bench it issued.In 1982, she ordered British troops to the Falkland Islands to retake them from Argentina. She took a strong stand against the trade uni
26、ons during the miners strike (1984-85), and moved Britain toward privatization, selling minor interests in public utilities to the business interests. In 1989, she introduced a community poll tax(人头税).In 1990, her cabinet was divided over issues including the European Community which forced her regi
27、stration. In 1992, she entered the House of Lords, created Baroness (女性男爵) Thatcher of Kesteven.Her memoirs were being published by Harper Collins. The first volume, “The Downing Street Years” was published in 1993. * Sir John Major, (born 29 March 1943) is a British politician, who served as Prime
28、Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. During his term as Prime Minister, the world went through a period of political and military transition after the end of the Cold War. * Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is a former British Labor pol
29、itician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of Labor Party from 1994 to 2007; he resigned from all these positions in June 2007.Tony Blair and George W. Bush on 12 November 2004. * Ja
30、mes Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labor Party. Brown became Prime Minister in June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming leader of the governing Labor Party. Brown with former U.S. President George
31、 W. Bush Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama in the White House Class system in British society The class system does exist in British society. British society is considered to be divided into three main groups of classes - the Upper Class, the Middle Class, and the Lower or Working Class. This
32、is known as the Class system and it is important to know something about it if you want to understand British people and society. Most British people grow up with a deep knowledge and understanding of the class system even if they are not very conscious of it. Most people know which class they belon
33、g to by the way they speak, their clothes, their interests or even the type of food they eat. 1) Most of the British population would claim themselves to be either of middle-class or working-class, though some people would actually belong to the upper middle-class or lower middle-class. 大多数的英国人宣称他们自
34、己是中产阶级或是工人阶级，不过有些人确切地说应该属于中上阶级或中下阶级。 2) Class divisions are not simply economic, they are cultural as well. 阶级区分不单单是经济上的，他们也是文化上的。 Social class is not only about behavior and attitudes. For example, although many upper class people are rich and may own a lot of land, having a lot of money does not m
35、ake a person upper class. It is also important to come from a particular kind of family, have friends who are considered suitable, have been to a certain type of private school and speak with the right kind of accent.There are people who are poor but who do not think of themselves as working class b
36、ecause their family background, education, political opinions, etc. are different to those of most working-class people. Many people do not like the class system but it is impossible to pretend that these differences do not exist or that British people do not sometimes form opinions in this way. 3)
37、People of different classes may differ in the kind of newspapers they read, in the way they speak and in the kind of education they receive. One of the distinctive features about the British class system is that aristocratic titles can still be inherited. 不同阶级的人所读的报纸不同，讲话的方式也不同，所受的教育也不同。英国阶级制度一大特点是：
38、贵族头衔仍然可以继承。 What is distinctive about the British class-system, and what marks it as different from the American social structure, is that it has retained a hereditary aristocracy.The hereditary aristocracy (世袭贵族): A distinctive feature of the British class-system. Children from these aristocratic f
39、amilies can inherit aristocratic titles as well as fortune. And the senior tier of the aristocracy also inherit the right to be lords in the House of Lords. ( *But they do not dominate the UK society because real power in the Parliament rests in the elected House of Commons and the majority of worki
40、ng “Lords” in the House of Lords 上院中的积极分子 are not from aristocratic families either, but have been made “life peers” ) Life peers (爵位不能世袭的)终身贵族: lords of their lifetime, but whose children cannot inherit the titles. They are made life peers out of recognition for achievement in UK society. *Oxbridge
41、: refers to the two top universities in Britain: Oxford and Cambridge. These two universities not only offer good education, but also offer a network of connections. Graduates from these two universities occupy a high proportion of the top level of many aspects of British society.Peerage Dignities C
42、reated Under the Life Peerages Act 1958 Prime MinisterPartyTenurePeersHarold MacmillanConservative1957196348Alec Douglas-HomeConservative1963196414Harold WilsonLabour19641970123Edward HeathConservative1970197456Harold WilsonLabour1974197680James CallaghanLabour1976197957Margaret ThatcherConservative
43、19791990200John MajorConservative19901997141Tony BlairLabour19972007357Gordon BrownLabour200730Total 1106Ethnic relations (族群关系族群关系) in the UK 1) Around 5% of British citizens are immigrants: South Asia India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka and Caribbean countries Jamaica and Trinidad (特立尼达岛) are from non-E
44、uropean ethnic groups. South Asia and Caribbean countries. 2) effects positive: has greatly enriched British culture food, music, writings, religion. 来自世界其它地方的移民大大丰富了英国的文化 negative: ethnic relations have tensed: the local people view the newcomers as a threat to their way of living; and despite much
45、 official action to minimize racism, both subtle and overt oppression remains. The immigrant population is not well-off economically. They face problems of unemployment, under-representation in politics and unfair treatment by police and justice system. 但是英国的民族关系有时候还是很紧张:当地的人把新来的人看作是对他们的生活方式的一种威胁。尽管官方采取了许多行动来将种族主义降低到最低限度，但是隐性和显性的压迫还是存在。移民人口在经济上还不富裕。他们面临失业的问题，政治上代表名额不足，受警察和司法制度的不公正待遇 。
