Question 10. Political parties.

Prior to the mid-19th century politics in the United Kingdom was dominated by the Whigs and the Tories. These were not political parties in the modern sense but somewhat loose alliances of interests and individuals. The Whigs included many of the leading aristocratic dynasties committed to the Protestant succession, and later drew support from elements of the emerging industrial interests and wealthy merchants, while the Tories were associated with the landed gentry, the Church of England and the Church of Scotland.

By the mid 19th century the Tories had evolved into the Conservative Party, and the Whigs had evolved into the Liberal Party. In the late 19th century the Liberal Party began to pursue more left wing policies, and many of the heirs of the Whig tradition became Liberal Unionists and moved closer to the Conservatives on many of the key issues of the time.

The Liberal and Conservatives dominated the political scene until the 1920s, when the Liberal Party declined in popularity and suffered a long stream of resignations. It was replaced as the main left-wing party by the newly emerging Labour Party, who represented an alliance between the trades unions and various socialist societies.

Since then the Conservative and Labour Parties have dominated British politics, and have alternated in government ever since. However, the UK is not quite a two-party system since a third party (recently, the Liberal Democrats) can prevent 50% of the votes/seats from going to a single party. The Liberals merged with the Social Democrats, because they had very similar views, and became the Liberal Democrats which is now a sizeable party.

The UK's First Past the Post (мажоритарная) electoral system leaves small parties disadvantaged on a UK-wide scale. It can, however, allow parties with concentrations of supporters in the constituent countries to flourish. Other than the Green Party of England and Wales, the only other parties winning seats in the House of Commons at the 2010 general election were based in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Since 1997, proportional representation-based voting (пропорциональная) systems have been adopted for elections to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales, the Northern Ireland Assembly, the London Assembly and the UK's seats in the European Parliament. In these bodies, other parties have had success.

Traditionally political parties have been private organisations with no official recognition by the state. The Registration of Political Parties Act 1998 changed that by creating a register of parties.

Membership of political parties has been in decline in the UK since the 1950s, falling by over 65% from 1983 (4 per cent of the electorate) to 2005 (1.3 per cent).

As of 10 June 2011 it shows the number of registered political parties as 419. In Northern Ireland there are 42 registered parties.

Major parties in the House of Commons

Three parties dominate politics in the House of Commons. They all operate throughout Great Britain (only the Conservative and Unionist Party stands candidates in Northern Ireland). Most of the British Members of the European Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales represent one of these parties:

• Conservative and Unionist Party, centrist to right-wing (traditionally centre-right and pragmatic; has always been a diverse and not always harmonious coalition) (306 seats in the House of Commons)

• Labour Party, centrist to Left-wing (traditionally socialist; is now a broad socialist and trade unionist to social liberal and social democratic party) (258 seats)

  • Co-operative Party (all Co-operative Party MPs are also Labour MPs as part of a long-standing electoral agreement)

• Liberal Democrats, radical-centrist (heavily influenced by social liberalism). (57 seats)

Sinn Féin MPs do not take their seats as they choose not to swear allegiance to the crown. (не присягают на верность короне)

Question 11. British economy and trade in XX-XXI.

Rank	7th (nominal) / 8th (PPP) (3rd and 2nd in Europe respectively)
Currency	Pound sterling (GBP)
Trade organisations	EU, BCN, OECD and WTO
Statistics
Average gross salary	€4,108 / $5,546, monthly (2006)[5]
Main industries	Aerospace Automotive Business and professional services Chemicals Construction Consumer goods Defence equipment Education Electronics Energy and utilities Financial services Food and beverages Healthcare Hospitality and leisure Industrial equipment Information technology Media and entertainment Pharmaceuticals and biotechnology Processed metals Real estate Retailing Scientific equipment Telecommunications Tourism Transportation and logistics
External
Exports	£428.6 billion (2010)[7]
Export goods	manufactured goods, fuels, chemicals, food stuff, beverages, tobacco, clothes, cars, military equipment, entertainment, steel, computer programming, finance, banking, electrical goods, machinery, pharmaceutical products
Main export partners	United States 14.3%, Germany 10.5%, Netherlands 8.0%, France 7.2%, Ireland 6.0%, Belgium and Luxembourg 5.1%, Spain 3.7%, Italy 3.3%, China 3.2% (2010, not including services)[7]
Imports	£477.9 billion (2010)[7]
Import goods	manufactured goods, machinery, fuels; foodstuffs
Main import partners	Germany 12.5%, China 8.4%, United States 7.6%, Netherlands 7.3%, France 6.0%, Norway 5.7%, Belgium and Luxembourg 5.0%, Italy 3.9%, Ireland 3.4% (2010, not including services)[7]

The economy of the United Kingdom is the seventh-largest national economy in the world measured by nominal GDP and eighth-largest measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), and the third-largest in Europe measured by nominal GDP (after Germany and France) and second-largest measured by PPP (after Germany). The UK's GDP per capita is the 22nd highest in the world in nominal terms and the 22nd highest measured by PPP. The British economy comprises (in descending order of size) the economies of the countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

In the 18th century the UK was the first country in the world to industrialise,and during the 19th century possessed a dominant role in the global economy.From the late-19th century the Second Industrial Revolution in the United States and Germany presented an increasing challenge to Britain's role as leader of the global economy. Despite victory, the costs of fighting both the First World War and Second World War further weakened the relative economic position of the UK, and by 1945 Britain had been superseded by the United States as the world's dominant economic power.However, the UK still maintains a significant role in the world economy.

The UK is one of the world's most globalised countries. London is the world's largest financial centre alongside New York and has the largest city GDP in Europe.As of December 2010 the UK had the third-largest stock of both inward and outward foreign direct investment (in each case after the United States and France) The aerospace industry of the UK is the second- or third-largest national aerospace industry, depending upon the method of measurement.The pharmaceutical industry plays an important role in the UK economy and the country has the third-highest share of global pharmaceutical R&D expenditures (after the United States and Japan).The British economy is boosted by North Sea oil and gas reserves, valued at an estimated £250 billion in 2007.^[30] The UK is currently ranked seventh in the world (and third in Europe) in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index.

The UK is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the European Union, the G7, the G8, the G20, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations.

Post-war recovery

Following the end of World War II, there was a long interval without a major recession (1945–1973) and a growth in prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s. According to the OECD, the annual rate of growth (percentage change) between 1960 and 1973 averaged 2.9%, although this figure was far behind the rates of other European countries such as France, West Germany and Italy.^[31]

However, following the severe shock of the 1973 oil crisis and the 1973–1974 stock market crash, the British economy had fallen into recession by the time Edward Heath's Conservative Party government had been ousted by the Labour Party as Harold Wilson moved into office for the second time, forming a minority government on 4 March after the general election on 28 February ended in a hung parliament, and then securing a three-seat majority in a second election in October that year.

GDP had fallen by 1.1%, recording weaker growth than other European nations in the 1970s overall; even when the recession ended in 1975, the economy was still blighted by double-digit inflation and unemployment was rising.

Neoliberalism

A new period of neo-liberal economics began in 1979 with the election of Margaret Thatcher, who won the general election on 3 May that year to return the Conservative Party to government after five years of Labour rule.

During the 1980s most state-owned enterprises were privatised, taxes cut and markets deregulated. GDP fell 5.9% at first but growth rose to 5% at its peak in 1988, one of the highest rates of any European nation.

However, Thatcher's modernisation of the British economy was far from trouble free; her battle against inflation resulted in mass unemployment with the jobless count passing 3,000,000 by the start of 1982 compared to 1,500,000 three years previously. This was in part due to the closure of outdated factories and coalpits which were no longer economically viable; this process continued for most of the rest of the decade. Unemployment peaked at nearly 3,300,000 during 1984 before falling dramatically in the final three years of the decade, standing at just over 1,600,000 by the end of 1989.^[35] However, the British economy slid into another recession during the second half of 1990, concurrent with a global recession, and caused the economy to shrink by a total of 8% from peak to trough and unemployment to increase from around 1,600,000 to nearly 3,000,000 by early 1993, when the recession ended, and the subsequent economic recovery was extremely strong. Unlike the early 1980s recession the recovery saw a rapid and substantial fall in unemployment, which was down to 1,700,000 by 1997.

The Labour Party, led by Tony Blair, returned to power in May 1997 after 18 years in opposition.During Blair's 10 years in office there were 40 successive quarters of economic growth, lasting until the second quarter of 2008. The previous 15 years had seen one of the highest economic growth rates of major developed economies during that time and certainly the strongest of any European nation.GDP growth had briefly reached 4% in the early 1990s, gently declining thereafter. This extended period of growth ended in 2008 when the United Kingdom suddenly entered a recession – its first for nearly two decades – brought about by the global financial crisis. Beginning with the collapse of Northern Rock, which was taken into public ownership in February 2008, other banks had to be partly nationalised. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group, which at its peak was the fifth-largest in the world by market capitalisation, was effectively nationalised on 13 October 2008.

The UK economy had been one of the strongest EU economies in terms of inflation, interest rates and unemployment, all of which remained relatively low until the 2008–09 recession. Unemployment has since reached a peak of just under 2.5 million (7.8%), the highest level since early 1990s, although still far lower than some other European nations.

Recent

UK exports of goods in 2005

On 23 January 2009, Government figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK was officially in recession for the first time since 1991. The unemployment rate among 18 to 24-year-olds has risen from 11.9% to 17.3%.Though initially Britain lagged behind other major economies including Germany, France, Japan, and the US which all returned to growth in the second quarter of 2009, the country eventually returned to growth in the last quarter of 2009. On 26 January 2010, it was confirmed that the U.K. had left its recession, the last major economy in the world to do so.