British political parties

General Questions
#1

I understand there are three main political parties in the UK: The Conservative Party, the Labour Party, and (running a distant third) the Liberal Democratic Party.

What I don’t understand, is what these parties stand for, nowadays. Labour used to be a “socialist” party but Tony Blair has moved it towards the center and curbed the labor unions’ institutional power within the party. So what now distinguishes Labour from the Conservatives?

And I understand the LibDems are a “centrist” party occupying an ideological middle ground between Labour and the Tories. But how much space can there be in that middle ground, any more?

Do any of these parties have close analogues in the United States?

And are there any parties I haven’t mentioned here which are significant, in the sense of being able to elect some members to Parliament occasionally?

And what are the most important divisive issues in British politics, generally?

#2

(I’ll just address the question about parties here and let some of the actual Brits debate the finer points about their politics.)

You’re forgetting the regional parties, the most important of which in Britain are the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru (nationalist parties of Scotland and Wales respectively). These parties compete with the “big three” you already mentioned, with only limited success.

Unfortunately the far-right British National Party has recently been making a lot of gains at local level and will almost certainly be a force in the next Westminster elections, unless a miracle happens :frowning:

Now if you’re including the Northern Irish parties, that’s a whole 'nother story. None of the big three currently stand candidates there, so all the Westminster seats go to regional parties. Currently holding those seats are the Ulster Unionist Party, the Democratic Unionist Party, Sinn Féin (which refuses to take its seats) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party. The only other party to have elected an MP in recent years is the UK Unionist Party, although there are other parties which have won seats in the regional assembly and on local councils.

#3

A breakdown by party of MPs is as follows:

Conservative (163 MPs) – nominally equivalent to the US Republican Party
Democratic Unionist (5 MPs) – an extremely conservative party only found in Northern Ireland; favours retaining NI as part of the UK
Independent (1 MP) – Dr Richard Taylor, elected as a local protest against policy relating to a hospital in his constituecy
Independent Conservative (1 MP) – Andrew Hunter, who resigned from the Conservative Party and intends to stand for the Democratic Unionist Party at the next elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly
Independent Labour (1 MP) – George Galloway, whose membership of the Labour Party was withdrawn in connection with his stance re the Iraq war
Independent Unionist (3 MPs) – members of the Ulster Unionist Party who are in dispute with it over the current situation in NI
Labour (408 MPs) – nominally equivalent to the US Democratic Party
Liberal Democrat (54 MPs)
Plaid Cymru (4 MPs) – Welsh for ‘Party of Wales’, an independent party only found in that country
Scottish National (5 MPs) – independent party only found in Scotland
Sinn Féin (4 MPs) – a left-wing party only found in Northern Ireland, favours NI uniting with the rest of Ireland instead of the UK (i.e. Republican in the sense of NI politics). As ruadh says, they don’t actually sit in the HoC
Social Democratic & Labour Party (3 MPs) – rough equivalent of the Labour Party in NI, also Republican in the sense of NI politics
Ulster Unionist (3 MPs) – another conservative NI-only unionist party
Speaker and Deputies (4 MPs) – officially independent of any party as a consequence of their designated parliamentary position

The comparison between UK political parties and US ones is a matter of opinion. As I understand it there is significantly more variation in policies favoured by different members of the US parties and a greater disparity between the main UK parties than there is between the US ones. I haven’t got time to go into greater detail just now, but I’ll post more later.

#4

Labour has followed the same general trend as most worker-oriented parties across the world over the last century.

As minimum wage and working conditions legislation is enacted, the constituency of workers’ parties becomes wealthier and less in need of legislative protection. Thus, fewer and fewer individuals are inclined to support policies like nationalization and expansion of social programs.

Essentially, labor parties eliminate the need for themselves by being successful.

As their constituents move on to new issues- instead of welfare reform, substitute tax reform, and instead of a minimum wage or shorter workweek, they ask for more vacation or more public transport- the parties have to move with them, or risk becoming marginalized.

(Fiscally) conservative parties have followed a similar trend- increasingly graduated income tax has decreased inequality, and the rich are now closer to the poor- and so conservative parties have also become increasingly centrist, to keep up with the shift in their own constituency.

The U.S. is a significant exception; although real median income has skyrocketed, income inequality has also increased. Thus, while both parties have become socially centrist, with little daylight between the two, the Republican party has actually moved to the right in terms of fiscal and monetary policy.

#5

Labour has followed the same general trend as most worker-oriented parties across the world over the last century.

As minimum wage and working conditions legislation is enacted, the constituency of workers’ parties becomes wealthier and less in need of legislative protection. Thus, fewer and fewer individuals are inclined to support policies like nationalization and expansion of social programs.

Essentially, labor parties eliminate the need for themselves by being successful.

As their constituents move on to new issues- instead of welfare reform, substitute tax reform, and instead of a minimum wage or shorter workweek, they ask for more vacation or more public transport- the parties have to move with them, or risk becoming marginalized.

(Fiscally) conservative parties have followed a similar trend- increasingly graduated income tax has decreased inequality, and the rich are now closer to the poor- and so conservative parties have also become increasingly centrist, to keep up with the shift in their own constituency.

The U.S. is a significant exception; although real median income has skyrocketed, income inequality has also increased. Thus, while both parties have become socially centrist, with little daylight between the two, the Republican party has actually moved to the right in terms of fiscal and monetary policy.

#6

I’m a little less pessimistic about that than you sound, following this a couple of weeks ago: Seats slip from BNP control.

Fingers crossed anyhow.

#7

I’m just going to be really anal and pick a couple of minor nits:

That’s correct in the sense of “not found anywhere else in the U.K.” but, of course, it is found in the other 26 counties of Ireland.

The SDLP would be considered nationalist, not republican.

I would also agree with this assessment:

#8

… and re the BNP, they came in third last week in the Margate Central Ward Thanet Council election, with 19% of the vote and over twice as many votes as the Lib-Dems. That’s why I’m still pessimistic.

#9

Local elections, especially mid-term, are not a good indication of party support.

BNP getting 19% sounds a lot, but the voter turnout is usually spectacularly low, often less than 20% of the electorate, and just 50 votes can easily make a huge differance.This is also usually only local politics too, and voter turnout is even lower for these events.

19% of not a lot is less than one fifth of not a lot, BNP generally get annihilated when the serious politics gets involved, their habit is to import a load of thugs from other areas, provoke lots of trouble in minority communities, and hope they will react and cause a backlash, naturally the local rags tend to emphasise the skin clour of the protesters, and not the issues that provoked their protest.

BNP can target individual seats but they don’t have the ability to make a more general offensive.

Actually, if the BNP and other racist idiots get their wish, they might just be unfortunate to get what they want, and the fact is that we in the UK need to import labour in the next 20 or so years to support the growing elederly population since our birthrate has declined so much.

If racist politics prevent immigrant workers being welcomed here, they might just go to other countries where circumstances are more favourable and give the UK the finger.

Those elederly racists will then find they have to work far later in life than they had planned and will have to pay much more for the services they use since taxation revenue just will not be enough.

BNP should be careful what they wish for.

#10

Local elections, especially mid-term, are not a good indication of party support.

BNP getting 19% sounds a lot, but the voter turnout is usually spectacularly low, often less than 20% of the electorate, and just 50 votes can easily make a huge differance.This is also usually only local politics too, and voter turnout is even lower for these events.

19% of not a lot is less than one fifth of not a lot, BNP generally get annihilated when the serious politics gets involved, their habit is to import a load of thugs from other areas, provoke lots of trouble in minority communities, and hope they will react and cause a backlash, naturally the local rags tend to emphasise the skin clour of the protesters, and not the issues that provoked their protest.

BNP can target individual seats but they don’t have the ability to make a more general offensive.

Actually, if the BNP and other racist idiots get their wish, they might just be unfortunate to get what they want, and the fact is that we in the UK need to import labour in the next 20 or so years to support the growing elderly population since our birthrate has declined so much.

If racist politics prevent immigrant workers being welcomed here, they might just go to other countries where circumstances are more favourable and give the UK the finger.

Those elderly racists will then find they have to work far later in life than they had planned and will have to pay much more for the services they use since taxation revenue just will not be enough.

BNP should be careful what they wish for.

#11

Local elections, especially mid-term, are not a good indication of party support.

BNP getting 19% sounds a lot, but the voter turnout is usually spectacularly low, often less than 20% of the electorate, and just 50 votes can easily make a huge differance.This is also usually only local politics too, and voter turnout is even lower for these events.

19% of not a lot is less than one fifth of not a lot, BNP generally get annihilated when the serious politics gets involved, their habit is to import a load of thugs from other areas, provoke lots of trouble in minority communities, and hope they will react and cause a backlash, naturally the local rags tend to emphasise the skin clour of the protesters, and not the issues that provoked their protest.

BNP can target individual seats but they don’t have the ability to make a more general offensive.

Actually, if the BNP and other racist idiots get their wish, they might just be unfortunate to get what they want, and the fact is that we in the UK need to import labour in the next 20 or so years to support the growing elderly population since our birthrate has declined so much.

If racist politics prevent immigrant workers being welcomed here, they might just go to other countries where circumstances are more favourable and give the UK the finger.

Those elderly racists will then find they have to work far later in life than they had planned and will have to pay much more for the services they use since taxation revenue just will not be enough.

BNP should be careful what they wish for.

#12

Jeez, that is anal :). True though.

Yes. Note to self – don’t try to watch the football and type on the SDMB at the same time. I s’pose I should have said Democrat Party instead of Democratic Party too?

I suspect this thread was opened because people had stopped replying to a related GD thread, but since assessments of political parties’ characteristics are more debatable than straight fact I added my theory here instead.

I hope that’s OK with the OP.