Party constitution and structure

Labour Party Rule Book

The Labour Party is a membership organisation consisting of Constituency Labour Parties, affiliated trade unions, socialist societies, and the Co-operative Party, with which it has an electoral agreement. Members who are elected to parliamentary positions take part in the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP) and European Parliamentary Labour Party (EPLP). The party's decision-making bodies on a national level formally include the National Executive Committee (NEC), Labour Party Conference, and National Policy Forum (NPF) — although in practice the Parliamentary leadership has the final say on policy. Questions of internal party democracy have frequently provoked disputes in the party.

For many years, Labour has held to a policy of uniting Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland by consent, and had not allowed residents of Northern Ireland to apply for membership,[4] instead supporting the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) which takes the Labour whip at the House of Commons. Yet Labour has a unionist faction in its ranks, many of whom assisted in the foundation in 1995 of the UK Unionist Party lead by Robert McCartney. The 2003 Labour Party Conference accepted legal advice that the party could not continue to prohibit residents of the province joining,[5] but the National Executive has decided not to organise or contest elections there.

The party had 198,026 members on 31 December 2005 according to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission which was down on the previous year. In that year it had an income of about Ј35,000,000 (Ј3,685,000 from membership fees) and expenditure of about Ј50,000,000. Party electoral manifestos have not contained the term socialism since 1992, although when Clause 4 was abolished the words "the Labour Party is a democratic socialist party" were added to the party's constitution.

 

Task 24. Read and retell the following text.

Conservative Party (UK)

Conservative and Unionist Party

Leader   David Cameron

Founded Historical 1678, Modern 1830

Headquarters  30 Millbank, London SW1

Political Ideology Conservatism, Liberal conservatism

Political Position Centre-right

International Affiliation International Democrat Union

European Affiliation Movement for European Reform, European Democrat Union

European Parliament Group ED, within EPP-ED

Colours Blue, Green

Political parties

Elections

The Conservative and Unionist Party, more commonly known as the Conservative Party is currently the second largest political party in the United Kingdom in terms of sitting Members of Parliament (MPs), the largest in terms of public membership, and the oldest political party in the United Kingdom. It is the most successful political party in British history in terms of election victories, and is considered by some to be the most successful political party in the world.[1] The current leader is David Cameron, who as Her Majesty's Loyal Leader of the Opposition heads the Shadow Cabinet.

The Conservative Party is descended from the Tory Party of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth Centuries. Its members are still commonly referred to as Tories and the party is still often referred to as the Tory Party. Although the Conservative Party was in government for two-thirds of the twentieth century, it has been in opposition in Parliament since losing the 1997 election to the Labour Party under Tony Blair and currently, Gordon Brown.

Name

The Party's official name is The Conservative and Unionist Party, although this is rarely used. The name has its origins in the 1912 merger with the Liberal Unionist Party and is an echo of the party's 1886-1921 policy of maintaining the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, in opposition to Irish nationalist and republican aspirations. Scotland's allied Unionist Party was independent of the Conservatives until 1965. Similarly the Ulster Unionist Party supported the Conservatives for many decades in the House of Commons and traditionally took the Conservative whip. In contrast to Scotland this arrangement broke down in the aftermath of the Ulster Unionists' opposition to the 1973 Sunningdale Agreement. The Conservative Party is now formally organised in Northern Ireland separately from the Ulster Unionist Party.

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