Text 5. Political parties of great Britain

Britain has a two-party system. From 1832 to 1918 the dominant parties were the Conservatives on the one hand and the Whigs¹ or Liberals on the other. Later the Labour party backed by the trade unions replaced the Liberals as the main party of reform, and since 1924 the political scene has been dominated by the Conservative and Labour parties.

The Conservative party or the Tories is the party supported traditionally by the rich and the privileged – the monopolists and landowners. It expresses the interests and views of the propertied class.

The formation of the Labour party at the beginning of the century was a victory of the labour movement. But Labour Government showed no radical change in policy from the Tories. From the very beginning there were two main trends within the party – the left socialist trend represented by the party’s rank-and-file members² and the right-wing trend represented by the party’s top leadership. In fact, it’s sometimes extremely difficult to tell the difference between the Labour and the Conservative policies.

The present day political scene is a combination of various political parties: the Conservatives, the Labour, the Liberal-Democratic party. The membership and parliamentary representation of the Liberal-Democratic party today is almost insignificant, although it does play a certain role in tipping the scales between the two largest parties: the Labour and the Conservatives.

The main way in which people exert influence over government is through political parties. These parties organize opinion on national issues, formulating policies which they feel will meet the wishes of as many people as possible.

Notes:

¹ the Whigs – виги (историческое название Либеральной партии)

² rank-and-file members – рядовые члены