The United Kingdom of Great

Britain and Northern Ireland

The Political System of UK
 The British Monarchy Today
• The United Kingdom is a constitutional
monarchy. This means that it has a monarch (a
king or a queen) as its Head of State. The
monarch reigns with the support of Parliament.
The powers of the monarch are not defined
precisely. Everything today is done in the
Queen`s name. It is her government , her armed
forces , her law courts and so on. She appoints
all the Ministers , including the Prime Minister .
Everything is done however on the advice of the
of the elected Government , and the monarch
takes no part in the decisionmaking process.
 The Government of the UK

The Government
of the UK

The monarch The Parliament:

The Parliament:
(The Queen The House of
the House of Lords
Elizabeth 2) Commons
 The Parliament
The British Parliament consists of two chambers:
the House of Lords and the House of Commons.
The legislative power in the country is exercised
by the Houses of Parliament. The House of
Lords is composed of hereditary and life peers
and peeresses. The members of the House of
Commons are elected by the people. They are
elected from the constituencies in England,
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The
House of Commons is the real governing body
of the United Kingdom.
 The British Parliament
• The House of Lords: the chairman is the Lord
Chancellor who sits on a special seat called the
Woolsack. The members debate a bill after it
has been passed by the House of Commons
and when the Lords agree, the bill is taken to the
Queen for Royal assent.

• The House Of Commons:is presided over by the

Speaker. If the majority of the members vote the
bill, it is sent to the House of Lords for
discussion.
 The Main Political Parties

The House of
Commons
(the oldest parties)

The Tories The Liberal

(the Conservative Democrats The Labour Party
Party) (the Liberal Party)
 The Conservative Party
• The Conservative Party , often called the Tory Party, is
one of those which can trace its roots back to the early
period. Today the Tory Party is that of big business,
industry, commerce and landowners. Most of the money
needed to run the party comes from large firms and
companies. The party represents those who believe in
private enterprise as opposed to state-owned
undertakings. There is some division within the party
itself: the more aristocratic wing and the low-middle-
class group. The Tories are a mixture of the rich and
privileged– the monopolists and landowners. The
Conservative Party is the most powerful and it is often
called a party of business directors.
 The Conservative Party
The word «tory» means an Irish high-way-man
and was applied to the conservatives by their
opponents but later they adopted the name to
describe themselves. The Tories opposed the
ideas of the French Revolution, Parliamentary
Reform and the development of the Trade
Unionism. They represent colonial policy. In
home policy they opposed the tendencies of the
Labour Party to nationalize gas, electricity, coal
and the railways. Today the Conservative Party
can broadly be described as the party of the
middle and upper classes.
 The Liberal Party
• The Conservative Party and the Liberal
Party are more than three hundred years
old. The Tories called the Liberals
«Whigs». A «whig» was a Scottish
preached who could go on for 4 or 5 hours
at a time preaching moralising sermons.
 Использованные материалы:
Литература:
1. Ощепкова В.В. Britain in Brief.-М.:
Лист,1999.
2. Golitsinski Yu. Great Britain.-S.-
Peterburg.: ООО «ИПЦ «КАРО»,1999.
3. Занина Е.Л. 95 устных тем по
английскому языку. -М.: Рольф,1997.