Organisation and membership

The internal organisation of the Conservative Party is a contrast between the grassroots groups who dominate in the election of party leaders and selection of local candidates, and the members of the Conservative Campaign Headquarters who lead in financing, the organising of elections, and drafting of policy. The leader of the Parliamentary party provides the core of daily political activity and forms policy in consultation with his cabinet and administration. This decentralised structure is unusual.

As with the Labour Party, membership has long been declining and despite an initial boost shortly after Cameron's election as leader, membership resumed its fall in 2006 and is now actually lower than when David Cameron was elected in December 2005. However, the Conservative Party still has more members (about 290,000) than the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats combined (around 200,000 and 70,000 respectively).[3] However, the party does not publicly provide verifiable membership figures, making this difficult to confirm.

The membership fee for the Conservative party is Ј25, or Ј5 if the member is under the age of 23.

According to accounts filed with the Electoral Commission it had income in the year ending 31 December 2004 of about Ј20 million and expenditure of about Ј26 million.

The electoral symbol of the Conservative party is a stylised oak tree, replacing the freedom torch. The present motto, adopted by the Party on 6 October 2007, is "It's Time For Change". Before David Cameron, the official party colours were red, white and blue, though blue is most generally associated with the party, in contrast to the red of the Labour Party. The position has become more ambiguous since the logo change in 2006, and the party website is now blue and green. (In the Cumbrian constituencies of Penrith and the Border and Westmorland and Lonsdale the party adopts yellow as its colour after the coat of arms of the Earls of Lonsdale).

 

Task 25. Read and translate the following text:

Liberal Democrats

Liberal Democrats

Leader   Nick Clegg MP

Founded 1988

Headquarters  4 Cowley Street

London, SW1P 3NB

Political Ideology Social liberalism

Political Position Centre Left[1][2]

International Affiliation Liberal International

European Affiliation European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party

European Parliament Group Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe

Colours Gold/Yellow, Black

Political parties

Elections

The Liberal Democrats, often shortened to Lib Dems, is a liberal political party in the United Kingdom formed in 1988 by the merger of the Liberal Party and the Social Democratic Party; the two parties had already been in an alliance for seven years prior to this, since not long after the formation of the SDP.

The Liberal Democrats is the third-largest party in the UK Parliament, behind Labour and the Conservatives, with 63 Members of Parliament (MPs) – 62 elected at the general election of 2005, they held Cheadle in the Cheadle by-election (July 2005) and gained one at the Dunfermline and West Fife by-election (February 2006). In the last session of the Scottish Parliament, the Scottish Liberal Democrats formed part of the coalition Scottish Executive with Labour; the Lib Dems supplying the Deputy First Minister, Nicol Stephen. The party's leader is Nick Clegg, who was elected on 18 December 2007.

Generally promoting social liberalism, the Liberal Democrats seek to minimise state intervention in personal affairs in the United Kingdom and throughout the world: many Lib Dem MPs criticise such intervention as symptomatic of a "nanny state". Unlike some other liberal parties, the Liberal Democrats were not founded on an explicit doctrine of economic liberalism, instead favouring combining a commitment to social justice and the welfare state with a belief in economic freedom and competitive markets wherever possible. The party's Presidential Book of Office, passed between outgoing and incoming Presidents, is John Stuart Mill's On Liberty.

The party is traditionally supportive of a multilateral foreign policy; they opposed British participation in the War in Iraq and support a swift withdrawal of troops from the country. The Liberal Democrats are considered the most pro-European party in British politics.

In the past decade the party has adopted a strong sense of environmentalist values – favouring taxing high polluters more than currently. Since the 2007 Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Brighton, the party favours cutting the basic rate of income tax by 'four pence in the pound', a significant alteration of their policy towards fiscal neutrality and away from increasing tax revenue for purposes of redistribution, that had previously been considered an "Old Labour" position.

Ideology

The Liberal Democrats describe their ideology as giving "power to the people"; they are against the undemocratic concentration of power in unaccountable bodies. They propose decentralisation of power out of Westminster. They would also create a system of tiered government structures to make decisions at what they see as the right level, including regional assemblies, the European Union, and international organisations. In keeping with this principle, the Liberal Democrats are keen protectors of civil liberties and oppose intervention of the state in personal affairs. For this reason, the party has been popular among campaigners for the decriminalisation ofrecreational drugs.

SUPPLEMENTARY READING

Task 1. Review the text.

Th and 19th Centuries

⇐ Предыдущая37383940414243444546Следующая ⇒

Поделиться: