2018-03-09
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The process of creating ‘The United Kingdom’ from a group of island nations on the North-West edge of Europe took several centuries to complete. After long-term conflict across local borders, the union between England and Wales in the mid-1500s was followed, a century and-a-half later, by the union with Scotland in 1707, consolidating the unity of mainland ‘Great Britain’.
With its much larger population and financial clout, England remained the dominant partner. The smaller nations, surrendering national governance to London, continued their struggle for identity. An internal empire was thus growing apace as the wider British Empire took shape across the globe.
The Complex Unity of the United Kingdom
In 1800 Ireland became the final member of what would henceforth be called ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’. But this latecomer, separated by the seas, remained very much its own island. Here the tensions of Union led to stronger forms of resistance which in the early decades of the 20th century erupted into an armed insurgency against the British, and then Civil War.
The outcome was the political partition of the country, in 1920, into the ‘north’ – the ‘Northern Ireland’ which would continue as the fourth region of the UK – and the ‘south’, modern-day Ireland. This contentious division, heralding the break-up of the British Empire which would accelerate in the post-WWII years, would create bitter and violent conflict in Northern Ireland - the 'Troubles'' - from the 1960s until the 1990s.
National and Regional Geographies
The United Kingdom was thus, from the outset, a complex of identities caught between the impulses of unity – ‘Britishness’ – and independence
(Welshness’, ‘Scottishness’, ‘Irishness’). The most powerful player, ‘England’, inevitably found itself conflated with ‘Britain’ and hence, to widespread confusion at home and abroad, ‘Englishness’ was erroneously conflated with ‘Britishness’ itself.
The four nations, of course, continued to experience their own internal differences – in Wales, between the rapidly industrialising south and the more rural north; in Scotland, between the urban arc of the lowlands and Eastern coast, and the northerly and western Highlands and Islands; and across the sea, by the intense artificiality of the divided Ireland. England began to bear the marks of its own north-south divide, between the de-industralised North and the South-East, dominated by the political and economic power of the capital, London.
III. THE SYSTEM OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT
The United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy, which means that the powers of the monarch are limited by the country’s constitution.
The British constitution, unlike in most other countries, is an unwritten constitution. It is not contained in any single legal document.
In theory the constitution safeguards the separation of power between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
The legislature, which consists of both Houses of Parliament and formally the monarch, is the supreme authority, the supreme law-making body.
The executive consists of the government – Cabinet and government ministries (or departments) headed by ministers (or secretaries of state). The government is responsible for putting laws into effect and directing national policy and acts formally in the name of the monarch.
The judiciary is composed mainly of the judges of the higher court, who determine the common law and interpret Acts of Parliament and decide on cases arising out of the laws. The judiciary is supposed to be independent of the legislative and executive branches of government.
The Monarchy
The UK is one of six constitutional monarchies within Europe (the other five being Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Spain). Britain’s monarchy is the oldest, dating back to the 9th century. It existed four centuries before the Parliament and three centuries before the law courts.
The full royal title in Britain is ‘Elizabeth the Second, by the grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith.’ The title thus reflects the union of the kingdoms of England and Scotland in 1707, the union with Ireland in 1801 and the emergence of the Commonwealth.
Succession
Succession to the Throne in the United Kingdom is still hereditary, but only for Protestants in the direct line of descent: the English Act of Settlement (1701) laid down that only Protestant descendants of Princess Sophia – a grand-daughter of King James I (1603 - 25) are eligible to succeed.
The sons of the Sovereign and their descendants have precedence over daughters in succeeding to the throne, but daughters take precedence over the descendants of the Sovereign’s brothers. A daughter who succeeds to the throne becomes Queen Regnant and acquires the Crown’s powers as though she were king. While the consort of a king takes her husband’s rank and style and becomes Queen, the constitution does not give any special rank or privileges to the husband of a Queen Regnant.
The Sovereign succeeds to the throne as soon his or her predecessor dies; there is no interval of interregnum. The automatic succession is summed up in the famous phrase ‘the King is dead; long live the King!’
The present royal family belonged to the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha until 1917 when, in the light of World War I, it was considered more appropriate for the King to have an English rather than a German name. It was therefore proclaimed that Queen Victoria’s descendants in the male line would adopt the name Windsor. In 1952 Queen Elizabeth declared that she and her children should be known as the House and the Family of Windsor.
The Queen personifies the state. As has been mentioned, in law she is head of the executive and of the judiciary, an integral part of the legislature, commander-in-chief of all armed forces of the Crown and the ‘supreme governor’ of the established Church of England. As a result of a long process of evolution, especially since 1689, the monarchy’s absolute powers have been progressively reduced; the Queen today is only a formal ruler and does not actually govern: nowadays monarchs reign but not rule.
The constitutional and legal doctrine declares that the Queen can do nothing wrong. In practice this has come to mean that the Queen does not act independently. Whatever she does must be done on the advice of a Prime Minister who is politically responsible for the royal act.
Though Britain is actually governed by Her Majesty’s Government, it would be wrong to underestimate the role of the monarchy in Britain. The official and state duties of the Queen are numerous. The Queen’s involvement is still required in many important acts of government. It is the Queen who summons, suspends until the next session and dissolves Parliament. She normally opens each session with a speech from the throne, which outlines her Government’s programme. Before a bill that has passed all its stages in both Houses of Parliament becomes a law it must receive the Royal Assent.
It is the Queen’s duty to make appointments of many important office holders, including government ministers, judges, officers in the armed forces, governors, diplomats, bishops and other senior clergy of the Church of England. She also confers all peerages, knighthoods and other honours.
An important function of the Queen is appointing the Prime Minister, but when doing so she is bound to invite the leader of the political party, which commands a majority in the House of Commons to form a government.
In international affairs the Queen, as head of state, has the power to declare war and make peace, to recognize foreign states and governments, to conclude treaties and to annex or cede territories.
The Queen is also active in the smooth working of the government: she gives audiences to her ministers and other officials in Britain and overseas, reads dispatches and signs numerous state papers, these arrive in special ‘red boxes’. Some are new laws that need her assent. Others are reports, documents or telegrams from ambassadors. This is an important part of the Queen’s job. She is not a political leader, but she has ‘the right to be consulted, the right to encourage and the right to warn’. That is also why the Queen is visited by the Prime Minister every Tuesday evening to receive an account of Cabinet decisions, as she must be informed and consulted on every aspect of national life.
Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative authority and consists of three separate elements: the Queen, the House of Lords and the elected House of Commons. Over the centuries the balance between the three parts of the legislature has changed, so that the Queen’s role, as has been stated above, is now only formal and the House of Commons has gained supremacy over the House of Lords.
As has been stated above, Britain has no written constitution and Parliament is able to legislate as it pleases. It can make, abolish or change any law; it can destroy established conventions or, vice versa, turn a convention into law. Thus, Parliament rather than the will of the people is clearly the real sovereign in the state.
The main functions of British Parliament today are as follows:
· to pass laws
· to vote on financial bills so that the government could carry on its work
· to discuss the government’s administrative policies – foreign affairs, the state of agriculture, educational problems, etc.
· to debate important political issues of the day.
By custom, Parliament is also informed before the ratification of all important international treaties and agreements. The making of treaties is, however, a royal prerogative exercised on the advice of the government and is not subject to parliamentary approval.
Electoral System
The maximum legal life of the House of Commons is five years and the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister may dissolve it before the end of this term. The Prime Minister is bound to this if his Ministry is defeated on an important issue by the vote of the House of Commons. Nowadays, though, when the electorate often votes for a particular party leader rather than the party itself, government leaders try to use the power of dissolving Parliament and hold elections at moments of highest popularity, as, for example, Mrs. Thatcher did after her victory in the Falklands War.
When it has been decided to hold a General Election, the old Parliament is dissolved and 20 clear days must elapse before the new Parliament meets. A notice, or writ, has to be sent to each constituency, where the Returning Officer makes provisions for the holding of the election.
For electoral purposes the whole of the United Kingdom is divided into 659 electoral constituencies. Each constituency usually contains about 66, 000 voters and returns one member to the House of Commons.
General elections for parliamentary seats are by secret ballot. British citizens, together with citizens of other Commonwealth countries and citizens of the Irish Republic resident in Britain, may vote provided they are at least 18 years old, are registered in the annual register of electors for the constituency and are not subject to any disqualifications. People not entitled to vote include the Royal Family; members of the House of Lords; mentally ill people, convicted prisoners still in prison; and persons convicted within the previous five years of corrupt or illegal practices.
People vote for any one of the candidates in the constituency in which they are registered. Each elector normally casts one vote in person, at a polling station. But there are always people who are not able to vote in person. These people may apply for and become entitled to an absent vote – a vote by post or a vote by proxy (authorizing another person to cast a vote).
The candidate that obtains the largest number of voices in a constituency, irrespective of whether he or she has an overall majority, is returned as MP for that area. The other candidates, even if they come close to the winner, will not get a seat in Parliament and their votes are ‘wasted’. The system is known as the simple majority, or ‘the first-past-the post’.
British citizens may stand and be elected as MPs provided they are over 21 and are not subject to any disqualifications. Among those disqualified are undischarged bankrupts; people sentenced to more than 0ne year’s imprisonment; clergy of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church; peers, and holders of certain offices like civil servants, some local government officers, members of the regular armed forces or the police service.
