Political system

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (usually shortened to the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain) is a constitutional monarchy composed of four constituent countries: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The United Kingdom is a Constitutional Monarchy, with executive power exercised on behalf of the monarch by the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers. The monarch technically holds all executive power and must nominate a head of government (Prime Minister) that the Parliament agrees upon. The Prime Minister is a member of the House of Commons.

The cabinet, including the Prime Minister, and other senior ministers collectively make up Her Majesty's Government. These ministers are drawn from, and are responsible to, Parliament.

The Prime Minister appoints ministers to government posts, usually from senior members of their own party. Most ministers are members of the House of Commons. The remaining ministers are usually from the House of Lords, Ministers do not legally have to come from Parliament.

The Palace of Westminster, on the banks of the River Thames, London, houses the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

Parliament is composed of the elected House of Commons and the unelected House of Lords. The House of Commons is the more powerful of the two houses. The members of the House of Commons are directly elected from single-member constituencies based on population. The House of Lords is constituted of life peers, hereditary peers, and bishops of the Church of England. (The House of Lords Act 1999 removed the automatic inheritance of seats in the Lords and permitted 92 hereditary peers to remain.) The Church of England is the established church of the state in England only.

The Scottish Parliament, National Assembly of Wales and Northern Ireland Assembly each have their own executives and separate law making and constitutional powers. In the United Kingdom, the monarch has extensive theoretical powers, but his/her role is mainly, though not exclusively, ceremonial. The monarch is an integral part of Parliament and theoretically gives Parliament the power to meet and create legislation. An Act of Parliament does not become law until it has been signed by the monarch (known as Royal Assent), although not one has refused assent to a bill that has been approved by Parliament since Queen Anne in 1708. The present monarch is Queen Elizabeth II who acceded to the throne in 1952 and was crowned in 1953.

The monarch is also Head of State of fifteen other Commonwealth Realms, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Jamaica. The Crown Dependencies

of the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, formally possessions of the Crown, form a federacy with the United Kingdom collectively known as the British Islands. The UK also has fourteen overseas territories, all remnants of the British Empire (a quarter of the world's surface and population).

The Commonwealth of Nations (CN), usually known as the Commonwealth and formerly as the British Commonwealth, is a voluntary association of 53 independent sovereign states all of which are former possessions of the British Empire, except for Mozambique and the United Kingdom itself.

Queen Elizabeth II is the Head of the Commonwealth, In practice, the Queen heads the Commonwealth in a symbolic capacity, and it is the Commonwealth Secretary-General who is the chief executive of the organisation.

Elizabeth II is also the Head of State, separately, of sixteen members of the Commonwealth, called Commonwealth Realms. And each Realm is an independent kingdom. Beyond the Realms, the majority of the members of the Commonwealth have their own, separate Heads of State: thirty-one members are Commonwealth republics and five members have their own monarchs (Brunei, Lesotho, Malaysia, Swaziland, and Tonga).

The Commonwealth is primarily an organization in which countries with diverse economic backgrounds have an opportunity for close and equal interaction. The primary activities of the Commonwealth are designed to create an atmosphere of economic co-operation between member nations, as well as the promotion of democracy, human rights, and good governance in those nations.

The Commonwealth is not a political union, and does not allow the United Kingdom to exercise any power over the affairs of the organisation's other members.

Every four years the Commonwealth's members celebrate the

The flag of the CN The Commonwealth of Nations as of 2006

Commonwealth Games, the world's second-largest multi-sport event after the Olympic Games.

The United Kingdom is one of the three countries in the world today that does not have a codified constitution (the other two being New Zealand and Israel), relying instead on traditional customs and separate pieces of constitutional law.

At present there are two main political parties in England. The Conservative (or Tory) Party started as Royalists in the 17th century. Now it represents the interests of the big landowners, the bankers and the industrialists. The Labour Party was established at the beginning of this century. It was set up by the trade-unions and various small socialist groups. But now there isn’t much difference between the two parties.

Tony Blair was elected in 1997. The current Prime Minister is Gordon Brown.

Vocabulary notes

Assent – согласие; одобрение, утверждение, разрешение, санкция (Royal assent — королевская санкция (одобрение монархом законопроекта))

Bishop - епископ (Anglican bishop — епископ протестантской церкви)

Chief executive - глава исполнительной власти; губернатор штата; зд. глава правительства

Codify - составлять кодекс, кодифицировать

Commonwealth of Nations - Содружество Наций

Dependency - зависимая страна, зависимая территория

Executive power – исполнительная власть

Hereditary peer - наследственный пэр

Life peer - пожизненный пэр (лицо, получившее титул барона), дающий право быть членом палаты лордов [House of Lord], но не передающийся по наследству;

Realm - государство, королевство

Abbrevations

CN - the Commonwealth of Nations

H.C. – House of Commons

H.L. - House of Lords

MP – member of parliament

PM – prime minister